New Delhi, Aug. 15 -- Live broadcasting of Gurbani from the Guru Granth Sahib at the Golden Temple for a genuine religious purpose may not amount to copyright infringement when there was no commercial exploitation, the Delhi high court said on Friday as it refused to immediately restrain a private channel from live telecasting the Gurbani. "It's a literary-cum-musical work. You are reciting the Gurbani by way of musical performance. There is a literary work called Guru Granth Sahib, which you sing by way of musical work. Therefore, you are a literary and a musical work which, if used for bona fide religious ceremony, is not an infringement," a bench of justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani remarked. "On prima facie appreciation of the matter, this court is not inclined to pass any ad interim order at this stage," the court said in the order. The court made this remark while dealing with a copyright infringement suit filed by Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee to restrain a private channel Galactic Television and Communications (GTC) from broadcasting/rebroadcasting Gurbani from the Golden Temple. In the suit, senior advocate Chander M Lall, appearing for the SGPC, argued that the channel was infringing the SGPC's broadcast reproduction rights under Section 37 of the Copyright Act by retransmitting Gurbani, which it exclusively broadcast on YouTube. Section 37 specifically protects the special rights of broadcasting organisations. GTC, represented by senior advocate PS Patwalia, submitted that the channel was not charging any money from the public for viewing the telecast. The court, however, issued summons in the suit and fixed September 24 as the next date of hearing. On August 6, GTC Channel began telecasting the live kirtan using SGPC's official YouTube feed without authorisation, prompting objections from the Sikh body. The SGPC also initiated legal action against the channel, with president Harjinder Singh Dhami asserting that "all rights pertaining to the broadcast of Gurbani from the Golden Temple were exclusively vested with SGPC". GTC Channel is managed by Rabindra Narayan, former managing director of PTC Channel, which is owned by Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal. Narayan resigned from the PTC network last year and launched a new channel. Defending his channel's actions as propagation of Gurbani Narayan contended that SGPC member and spokesperson advocate Bhagwant Singh Sialka had previously stated during a television debate that anyone could share Gurbani already being streamed on SGPC's YouTube channel. Thus, GTC did not violate any rules....