Sheela Wijewardhana wins landmark copyright case in Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has delivered its judgment on 23/05/2025 in SC/CHC/Appeal No. 04/2013, in favour of the plaintiff-appellant, Sheela Wijewardene (wife of the late Clarence Wijewardene, the veteran musician) against the defendants-respondents, Sarath Kothalawala of Torana Music.

The appeal stems from an action filed in the Commercial High Court by the plaintiff-appellant in 2005 [HC (Civil)/26/2005(3)] alleging that copyright in the lyrics and musical compositions of several songs authored by the veteran musician, late Clarence Wijewardene, has been infringed by the defendants-respondents by performing the said songs and producing compact discs incorporating the said songs. The plaintiff-appellant had sought an injunction, damages, and the delivering up of infringing materials against the defendants-respondents in the said action filed in the Commercial High Court. During the pendency of the action in the Commercial High Court, the 2nd defendant-respondent – Rajiv Sebastian had entered into a settlement with the plaintiff-appellant admitting the intellectual property rights of the late Clarence Wijewardene and agreeing to pay Rs. 2,000,000.00 as damages.  At the conclusion of the trial, the Commercial High Court granted the permanent injunction in favour of Sheela Wijewardene against the 1st defendant-respondent among other reliefs sought.

An appeal was preferred to the Supreme Court in the year 2013 by Sheela Wijewardene seeking the other reliefs. The Supreme Court has upheld the Commercial High Court’s decision of granting the permanent injunction against the 1st defendant-respondent which is in essence;

A permanent injunction restraining the 1st defendant whether acting by himself, his employees and/ or servants and/or agents and/or anyone who so ever holding under the 1st defendant from directly and/or indirectly (a) reproducing, carrying out any public performance or communicating to the public in any other manner songs mentioned above in which the economic and moral rights in respect of the lyrics and music compositions belong to the estate of the late Clarence Wijewardena; (b) advertising, promoting, offering for sale and the sale of audio compact discs and the audio visual work titled ‘Viduru Mal’, ‘Sing along with Rajiv Sebastian’, ‘Reka Heenen Piyamba’ and ‘Torana Sinhala Karaoke Vol.2’; and (c) distorting the original music compositions of those songs created by the late Clarence Wijewardena.

The Supreme Court has not granted compensation or damages against the 1st defendant-respondent, citing agreements between the defendants-respondents where the 2nd defendant-respondent had misrepresented ownership of the works and the settlement entered into between the 2nd defendant-respondent and the plaintiff-appellant. However, the Supreme Court has found that the Commercial High Court had erred in not granting the plaintiff›s prayer for the delivering up of infringing material in the possession of the 1st defendant-respondent and amended the judgment of the Commercial High Court accordingly. Thus, the 1st defendant-respondent has been ordered by the Supreme Court to deliver up to the plaintiff-petitioner all the infringing material in the possession of the 1st defendant-respondent including all copies of the audio compact discs and the audio visual work ‘Sing along with Rajiv Sebastian’, ‘Viduru Mal’, ‘Reka Heenen Piyamba’ and ‘Torana Sinhala Karaoke Vol 2’. This relief granted by the Supreme Court is in addition to the permanent injunction granted by the Commercial High Court by judgement dated 30/07/2012.

The judgment has been delivered by a bench comprising Justices E.A.G.R. Amarasekara, A.L. Shiran Gooneratne, and Arjuna Obeyesekere.

Dr. Harsha Cabral, PC, with Kushan Illangatillake, instructed by V.W. Kularatne Associates represented the Plaintiff-Appellant whilst M.S.A. Wadood, with Palitha Subasinghe, Tharanga Edirisinghe, Hashane Mallawarachchi, and Dulmini Liyanage, instructed by S.B. Dissanayake Associates, represented the 1st Defendant-Respondent.