ANI sues PTI for Rs 2 crores over copyright infringement; Delhi High Court issues summons

New Delhi, July 05: The Delhi High Court on Friday issued a summons to the news agency Press Trust of India (PTI) in a copyright infringement and plagiarism case filed by rival Asian News International (ANI), reported by Bar and Bench.

Justice Mini Pushkarna directed PTI to file its response and scheduled the case for further hearing on August 9.

ANI has approached the High Court, alleging that PTI copied its videos of passengers in a Delhi-Darbhanga Spicejet flight suffering for nearly an hour due to a malfunctioning air conditioning system. The incident occurred on June 19, 2024, during a severe heat wave, while the plane was still on the runway.

According to ANI as reported by Bar and Bench, the videos, both long and short versions, were shot by its video journalist. However, PTI allegedly published identical videos shortly after ANI disseminated them via its feed and tweeted them on X (formerly Twitter).

ANI is seeking damages of over ₹2 crores and a permanent injunction to prevent PTI from publishing any of its original works. Senior Advocate Rajshekhar Rao, representing PTI, assured the court that PTI would take down the videos within 24 hours.

ANI was represented by Senior Advocate Chander M Lall and advocate Sidhant Kumar. Lall emphasized that PTI must issue an apology and clarification to news publications that had published the report as a PTI feed.

"They must take down and acknowledge that it is my work. They must apologize. They must write to all the newspapers that published the report as a PTI feed. PTI has been stealing my feeds," argued Lall.

Rao contested this submission, stating, "There is no apology needed. There is something more that needs to be said here... We had said that it [the video] is third-party content."

While the Bench initially considered referring the two news agencies to mediation, Lall opposed the suggestion. Ultimately, the court issued summons to PTI, and Lall indicated that the two parties would discuss the issue further.

ANI was represented by the law firm Unum Law.