Copyright in the Courts: How Moral Rights Won the Battle of the Mural

• Author: Binny Kalra
• Position: Senior attorney specializing in intellectual property litigation at the New Delhi firm of Anand and Anand, which represented the artist

Sehgal's mural

Back in 1959, the Ministry of Works, Housing and Supplies of the Union Government of India commissioned a talented sculptor, Amar Nath Sehgal, to design a mural. The work was to adorn the walls around a central arch of the Vigyan Bhawan, a venue for important government functions in the capital city. The design was given the green flag by the first Prime Minster of India, Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, and the mural was completed in 1962. In its final shape, it measured a mammoth 40 feet high and 140 feet long.

The mural won widespread acclaim, and gave the world a glimpse of the 'real' India - its farmers, artisans, women and children, their daily chores and celebrations, frozen in time, and molded from tons of solid bronze. For nearly 20 years the mural attracted dignitaries and art connoisseurs from all over the world. It became a landmark in the cultural life of the capital.

Then the Vigyan Bhawan buildings were renovated. In the process, the mural was ripped off the walls and the remnants put into store.

Poetic justice

Distressed by the destruction of his artistic work, and after petitioning the authorities for years without a response, Mr. Sehgal brought a lawsuit against the government¹ for violation of his moral rights. Specifically, he claimed that:

* the dismemberment of the homogeneous blend of the pieces of each tile in the mosaic constituted an act of mutilation;

* the Ministry's action was prejudicial to his honor and reputation as an artist, because, by reducing the mural to junk, it dealt a body blow to the esteem and celebrity bestowed on the work at its inception;

* the obliteration of his name on the work violated his right to claim authorship.

Though too late to rescue the mural by the time his grievance came to court in May 1992, Mr. Sehgal was nonetheless granted an interim injunction restraining the defendants from causing further damage to the work. By a quirk of fate, the presiding Judge was himself an art aficionado with, literally, a flair for poetic justice. The restraining order handed down by Justice Jaspal Singh came across as an acutely empathetic one:

"Sometime in the year 1962, the barren walls of Vigyan Bhawan were blessed with a mural...created by the magic hands of eminent sculptor Amar Nath Sehgal, approved by connoisseurs of all that is beautiful ... For years, it...