Student Protests, OpenAI Wins Lawsuit, New Fast Track Courts, and More

“It will not be an exaggeration to say that public space for expressing divergent opinion is shrinking in India. The right to express one's views and to demonstrate peacefully are fundamental freedoms of the citizens; debate and dissent are the essence of democracy. Unfortunately, even normal activities are being criminalised.”

- Supreme Court judge Justice Ujjal Bhuyan while speaking about the role of courts in protecting constitutional rights at a memorial lecture in NLIU Bhopal.

Delhi High Court Says Using Copyrighted Work for LLM Training is Not Violation
The Delhi High Court, last week, was in the midst of taking up petitions concerning the student protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar. However, even in all this, there was a significant development that came out of the court. 

In a copyright infringement lawsuit filed by news wire agency ANI Media against ChatGPT’s OpenAI, the court held that using publicly available copyrighted material to train large language models amounts to "fair dealing" for research, and doesn’t go against copyright laws. In doing so, the court provided much-needed legal certainty for AI innovation for the time being. 

The ruling is seen as a landmark first attempt to reconcile India's copyright law with generative AI, but is unlikely to be the final word. The judgment does leave some key questions unanswered, though, including whether commercial AI companies should compensate copyright holders whose works power and train these models. The ruling also held that the case was maintainable in Delhi, that is to say that the Indian courts have the right to hear and adjudicate on the case even if one of the parties is a foreign entity.

While this ruling gives a breather not only to OpenAI but also to the growing number of large language models being developed but it would also be incorrect to assume that this is the final word or a set jurisprudence on the issue. With the growing use of generative AI, the law will have to evolve and a jurisprudence will have to be set and this journey will only stop with the last word from the country’s top court. But until then, this judgment has paved the way for the legal discourse around the now growing subject.

Key Rulings

• Supreme Court holds that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has the power to issue directions for compliance enforcement and it does not amount to adjudication of disputes
• Delhi High Court rules in favour of OpenAI in a copyright infringement case filed by ANI Media over ChatGPT, single-judge bench finds no copyright violation
• Delhi High Court’s single-judge bench affirms the government’s decision to refuse a ten-year extension for Vedanta in Gujarat’s Suvali oil block

Courts 

• The Delhi High Court refused to entertain two separate PIL petitions, one for criminal action against Cockroach Janata Party protesters, and another for an NIA investigation against them
• Supreme Court agrees to hear PIL petition against police excesses and brutality against student protesters at Jantar Mantar in Delhi on July 20, to hear case on July 27
• Delhi High Court, separately, admits two petitions seeking investigation against police violence against protesters of the CJP protests, and directs the Delhi Police to preserve the videography and CCTV footage from July 20
• The central government and Delhi police defend filming protesters at the protest site in a petition filed before the Delhi High Court alleging police surveillance
• The Delhi High Court is set to hear a PIL petition challenging the internet shutdown in and around Jantar Mantar in Delhi which was the protest site for Cockroach Janata Party protests seeking resignation of the education minister over paper leaks scandal
• Supreme Court bars recording and sharing of court proceedings on social media without authorisation, says the interim order not to affect press reporting
• Vedanta appeals before a two-judge bench of the Delhi High Court in the Suvali oil block case shortly after single-judge bench ruling; fails to get interim relief
• Supreme Court green lights processing of 400 pending applications for reopening industries in the Taj Trapezium Zone
• A PIL petition has been filed in the Delhi High Court against the narrow definition of the word worker under the social security code
• Delhi High Court issues a notice on a PIL petition challenging the rollout of the HPV vaccine, allegedly without adequate research and study
• Supreme Court upholds a Delhi High Court order that quashed the government’s tender process for outsourcing passport, visa and consular services in Indian missions in four countries, and allowed temporary engagement of agencies while a fresh tender is awarded

Other

• Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, in a series of interviews with various media outlets, said the “cockroach” remark was not aimed at the youth of the country, but towards people with fake law degrees
• Delhi High Court and Bombay High Court pick judges to sit at the Fast Track Courts set up for hearing cases concerning NEET paper leaks after PM Narendra Modi announced such courts will be set up for speedy disposal of cases
• Bar Council of India issues a statement saying anti-national forces have hijacked student protests, urges legal fraternity to act; many lawyers distance themselves from the statement

The Big Listings:

Jul 27: Delhi High Court to hear Anil Ambani’s defamation lawsuit against NDTV

Jul 31: Securities Appellate Tribunal to hear appeal by Jane Street challenging SEBI’s move to allegedly refuse access to important documents to the firm in the case against it

Aug 13: Delhi Court to pronounce order on plea for registration of FIR against Sonia Gandhi over inclusion in voter roll

* The dates of hearing can change and a concrete list is prepared just a day before

Legal Moves:

• Anind Thomas leaves AZB, and Ravisekhar Nair leaves ELP to join Anagram Partners in Bengaluru
• Kanan Chawda elevated to partnership at White & Brief; Burzin Bharucha elevated as partner in disputes, white collar and arbitration practice
• Tanay Agarwal of TT&A and Puneet Nagaraj of SAM join Touchstone Partners in partnership roles
• ARCAS Law and TAS Law merge under the latter’s name and Arpit Gupta joins as Equity Partner
• Avijit Sharma joins Hero MotoCorp as Lead Legal