Ilayaraja is not the lone claimant to royalty to the music he composed, clarified the Madras High Court. The HC bench consisting of Justices R Mahadevan and Mohammed Sadiq clarified that without the lines, music cannot sustain itself and therefore everyone associated with the song has a claim for the royalty. Echo Music Company has bought the copyright of about 4,500 songs composed by Ilayaraja from producers associated with those songs. Earlier a single bench of HC had given a judgement in favour of the music director but while considering the appeal, the bench over-ruled this ruling.

When the producer entrusts someone to compose music for his film, the copyright is vested with the producer. Though the music director has claim of copyright on his tunes, he has no claim of copyright on the lyrics. The bench asked if the tunes have any existence without the lyrics.

The Bench will hear the case in detail during the second week of June. On an earlier date, the Bench had warned Ilayaraja not consider himself above all others in the music world.