The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday set aside an order of a lower court asking asking social media platform Twitter to temporarily block the main account of the Congress and its mass mobilisation campaign Bharat Jodo Yatra after a music label filed a copyright infringement case, reported Bar and Bench.

“Shutting out...it is punitive action,” the court said. “You direct them to preserve the evidence, that is fine.”

On Monday, Additional City Civil Judge Lathakumari M had asked Twitter to block the two handles – @INCIndia and @BharatJodo – based on a suit filed by MRT Music claiming that both the accounts illegally used sound records of Kannada film KGF-Chapter 2.

A division bench of Justices G Narendar and PN Desai on Tuesday set aside the order on the condition that the Congress remove the three infringing tweets from all social media platforms.

During the hearing, Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Congress, said that the the tweets allegedly infringing MRT Music’s copyright can be taken down and asked what was the need to block the accounts. Singhvi said that the music was inadvertently used and clarified that there was no commercial intent, reported Live Law.

He alleged that the music label had an ulterior motive as it wanted the entire Congress handles taken down.

“‘Till further orders block the social media’. What media? The entire INC Twitter,” he told the High Court. “It has no relevance for the respondent here unless he has some political axe to grind.”

He also raised questions on the urgency in passing the blocking order without hearing Congress party’s arguments.

“Please note... not a word in this [trial court] order about any urgency that it could not give notice to me,” Singhvi said. “It is mandatory to order notice unless you record emergent reason under Order 39 Rule 3. This has been interpreted recently.”

The counsel for MRT Music questioned how the Congress got hold of the songs when the copyrights of the sound records of the film was with the company.

The High Court noted that the Congress has already admitted to the mistake and asked if there was any need for further investigation.

Setting aside the blocking order, the High Court said it will hear the music label’s application saying that the Congress’ petition is not maintainable on Wednesday.

The complaint alleging copyright was filed by M Naveen Kumar, who manages MRT Music, after which a first information report was registered at the Yashwanthpur police station in Bengaluru on November 4.

The FIR named Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Jairam Ramesh and Supriya Shrinate under the provisions of Copyright Act, the Information Technology Act and the Indian Penal Code. The complainant had alleged that Ramesh on his Twitter account posted two videos of the Bharat Jodo Yatra, in which popular songs from the movie were used without permission.