Section 75 of the Copyright Act, 1957 - Money Orders Executable as Civil Court Decrees

Section 75 of the Copyright Act, 1957 provides a statutory mechanism for enforcing an order of the Registrar of Copyrights for payment of money. Once the prescribed certificate is issued, the order is deemed to be a decree of a civil court and can be executed in the same manner as such a decree.

Current-law note: The Tribunals Reforms Act, 2021 removed references to the Appellate Board from Sections 74 and 75 with effect from 4 April 2021. Accordingly, older versions of Section 75 that still refer to the Appellate Board are not the current text.

Section 75 - Current Provision

Orders for payment of money passed by Registrar of Copyrights to be executable as a decree.

Every order made by the Registrar of Copyrights under the Act for payment of money, or by the High Court in an appeal against such an order, becomes, upon the relevant certificate issued by the Registrar of Copyrights or the Registrar of the High Court, as the case may be, a deemed decree of a civil court and is executable in the same manner as a civil court decree.

Meaning and Effect of Section 75

The provision converts an otherwise statutory money-payment order into an executable decree by legal fiction. This avoids the need for the person entitled to payment to institute a separate civil suit merely to obtain a decree for the same amount.

Money order: The provision concerns an order under the Copyright Act directing payment of money.
Certificate: The statutory certificate is the procedural link by which the qualifying order is treated as a civil court decree.
Deemed decree: After certification, the order has the status of a decree for execution purposes.
Execution: The certified order may be enforced in the manner applicable to execution of a civil court decree.
High Court appeal: Section 72 now provides for appeals from final decisions or orders of the Registrar of Copyrights to the High Court.

2021 Amendment and Removal of the Appellate Board

The Tribunals Reforms Act, 2021 reorganised the adjudicatory structure under the Copyright Act. In relation to Section 75, the amendment omitted the words referring to the Appellate Board. The heading and operative text should therefore be read without the obsolete Appellate Board references.

This change is important because the earlier wording reproduced on many older pages reflected the position after the Finance Act, 2017, when references to the former Copyright Board had been replaced by references to the Appellate Board. The 2021 reform subsequently removed those Appellate Board references from Section 75.

Relationship with Section 72

Section 72 of the Copyright Act deals with appeals against final decisions or orders of the Registrar of Copyrights. Following the 2021 amendment, such an appeal lies to the High Court within the statutory period, subject to the provisions of that section.

Relationship with Section 74

Section 74 of the Copyright Act confers specified civil-court powers on the Registrar of Copyrights, including powers relating to attendance of witnesses, discovery and production of documents, affidavits, commissions and public records. Section 75 separately deals with the enforceability of qualifying money-payment orders as decrees.

Official Legal Resources

For the authoritative statutory text and amendment history, refer to the official India Code - Copyright Act, 1957, the Copyright Office, Government of India, and the official text of the Tribunals Reforms Act, 2021.

This page is intended as a general legal reference. For a particular execution proceeding or appeal, the current statutory text, applicable procedural law, court rules and relevant judicial decisions should be checked.