No copyrights for Quran, Islamic teachings: Delhi Court

New Delhi: A Delhi court observed on a July 25 order that no one can make a copyright claim on the teachings in the Quran as well as other Islamic books. The court dismissed a copyright infringement case and imposed a Rs 50,000 cost on the plaintiff, The Indian Express reported.

District Judge (Commercial) Sanjeev Kumar Aggarwal observed that some contents are bound to be similar to the teaching given in the Holy Books Quran, and Hadees and other religious texts related to Islam are bound to be the same in all books which are about teaching on Islam. Therefore nobody can have copyright on these teachings, the judge said.

The plaintiff was Islamic Book Service (P) Ltd, a publisher and exporter of Islamic books situated in Delhi's Daryaganj. It claimed that Maulvi Abdul Aziz is the owner and author of the literary work titled 'Islami Taleemat' series of books, Part I to VIII, and has assigned the copyright to the company unconditionally and also handed over the manuscript of the work against consideration, TIE reports.

According to the publisher, the defendant Abdur Rauf Najeeb Bakali started publishing Maulvi Aziz's work in the same name and style of 'Islamic Studies Grade I to Grade 5', 'Islamic Studies Grade I to Grade 5' in May 2018.

The company told the court that it was continuously publishing the book series since 1992, and it was widely sold in Delhi and abroad. It alleged that the defendant published their book, 'Studies in Islam', in the name 'Islamic Studies', violating copyrights.

The court, however, observed that it had found nothing suggesting that the defendant had copied the plaintiff's work and rejected the plaintiff's argument that the names of both works are similar just because 'Islam' and 'Studies' were repeated in the defendant's book's title.