EXCEPTION

TO
INFRINGEM
ENT OF
COPYRIGHT
SECTION 52: CERTAIN ACTS
NOT TO BE AN INFRINGEMENT
OF COPYRIGHT
• (1)The following acts shall not constitute an infringement of
copyright, namely:
• (a)a fair dealing with any work, not being a computer program,
for the purposes of—
• (i)private or personal use, including research;
• (ii)criticism or review, whether of that work or of any other work;
• (iii)the reporting of current events and current affairs, including
the reporting of a lecture delivered in public.

2
• Explanation.—The storing of any work in any electronic medium for the
purposes mentioned in this clause, including the incidental storage of
any computer programme which is not itself an infringing copy for the
said purposes, shall not constitute infringement of copyright.
• (aa)the making of copies or adaptation of a computer programme by the
lawful possessor of a copy of such computer programme from such copy
• (i)in order to utilise the computer programme for the purpose for which
it was supplied; or
• (ii)to make back-up copies purely as a temporary protection against
loss, destruction or damage in order only to utilise the computer
programme for the purpose for which it was supplied;
3
• (ab)the doing of any act necessary to obtain information essential
for operating inter-operability of an independently created
computer programme with other programmes by a lawful
possessor of a computer programme provided that such
information is not otherwise readily available;
• (ac)the observation, study or test of functioning of the computer
programme in order to determine the ideas and principles which
underline any elements of the programme while performing such
acts necessary for the functions for which the computer
programme was supplied;
4
• (ad)the making of copies or adaption of the computer programme from a
personally legally obtained copy for non-commercial personal use;
• (b)the transient or incidental storage of a work or performance purely in
the technical process of electronic transmission or communication to the
public;
• (c)transient or incidental storage of a work or performance for the
purpose of providing electronic links, access or integration, where such
links, access or integration has not been expressly prohibited by the
right holder, unless the person responsible is aware or has reasonable
grounds for believing that such storage is of an infringing copy:

5
• Provided that if the person responsible for the storage of the
copy has received a written complaint from the owner of
copyright in the work, complaining that such transient or
incidental storage is an infringement, such person responsible
for the storage shall refrain from facilitating such access for a
period of twenty-one days or till he receives an order from the
competent court refraining from facilitating access and in
case no such order is received before the expiry of such
period of twenty-one days, he may continue to provide the
facility of such access;
6
• (d)the reproduction of any work for the purpose of a judicial
proceeding or for the purpose of a report of a judicial proceeding;
• (e)the reproduction or publication of any work prepared by the
Secretariat of a Legislature or, where the Legislature consists of
two Houses, by the Secretariat of either House of the Legislature,
exclusively for the use of the members of that Legislature;
• (f)the reproduction of any work in a certified copy made or
supplied in accordance with any law for the time being in force;

7
• (g)the reading or recitation in public of reasonable extracts from a
published literacy or dramatic work;
• (h)the publication in a collection, mainly composed of non-copyright
matter, bona fide intended for instructional use, and so described in
the title and in any advertisement issued by or on behalf of the
publisher, of short passages from published literary or dramatic
works, not themselves published for such use in which copyright
subsists:
• Provided that not more than two such passages from works by the
same author are published by the same publisher during any period
of five years.
8
• Explanation.—In the case of a work of joint authorship, references in
this clause to passages from works shall include references to
passages from works by any one or more of the authors of those
passages or by any one or more of those authors in collaboration
with any other person;
• (i)the reproduction of any work—
• (i)by a teacher or a pupil in the course of instruction; or
• (ii)as part of the questions to be answered in an examination; or
• (iii)in answers to such questions;
9
• (j)the performance, in the course of the activities of an
educational institution, of a literary, dramatic or
musical work by the staff and students of the
institution, or of a cinematograph film or a sound
recording if the audience is limited to such staff and
students, the parents and guardians of the students
and persons connected with the activities of the
institution or the communication to such an audience
of a cinematograph film or sound recording;
10
• (k)the causing of a recording to be heard in public by
utilising it,—
• (i)in an enclosed room or hall meant for the common
use of residents in any residential premises (not being
a hotel or similar commercial establishment) as part of
the amenities provided exclusively or mainly for
residents therein; or
• (ii)as part of the activities of a club or similar
organisation which is not established or conducted for
11
• (l)the performance of a literary, dramatic or musical work by an
amateur club or society, if the performance is given to a non-
paying audience, or for the benefit of a religious institution;
• (m)the reproduction in a newspaper, magazine or other periodical
of an article on current economic, political, social or religious
topics, unless the author of such article has expressly reserved to
himself the right of such reproduction;
• (n)the storing of a work in any medium by electronic means by a
non-commercial public library, for preservation if the library
already possesses a non-digital copy of the work;
12
• (o)the making of not more than three copies of a book
(including a pamphlet, sheet of music, map, chart or plan)
by or under the direction of the person in charge of a non-
commercial public library for the use of the library if such
book is not available for sale in India;
• (p)the reproduction, for the purpose of research or private
study, or with a view to publication, of an unpublished
literary, dramatic or musical works kept in a library,
museum or other institution to which the public has access:
13
• Provided that where the identity of the author of any such
work or, in the case of a work of joint authorship, of any of
the authors is known to the library, museum or other
institution, as the case may be, the provisions of this clause
shall apply only if such reproduction is made at a time more
than sixty years from the date of the death of the author or,
in the case of a work of joint authorship, from the death of
the author whose identity is known or, if the identity of more
authors than one is known from the death of such of those
authors who died last;
14
• (q)the reproduction or publication of—
• (i)any matter which has been published in any Offi cial Gazette except an Act of a
Legislature;
• (ii)any Act of a Legislature subject to the condition that such Act is reproduced or
published together with any commentary thereon or any other original matter;
• (iii)the report of any committee, commission, council, board or other like body
appointed by the Legislature, unless the reproduction or publication of such
report is prohibited by the Government;
• (iv)any judgment or order of a court, Tribunal or other judicial authority, unless
the reproduction or publication of such judgment or order is prohibited by the
court, the Tribunal or other judicial authority, as the case may be;

15
• (r)the production or publication of a translation in any Indian
language of an Act of a Legislature and of any rules or orders
made thereunder—
• (i)if no translation of such Act or rules or orders in that
language has previously been produced or published by the
Government; or
• (ii)where a translation of such Act or rules or orders in that
language has been produced or published by the Government,
if the translation is not available for sale to the public:
16
• Provided that such translation contains a statement at a prominent
place to the effect that the translation has not been authorised or
accepted as authentic by the Government;
• (s)the making or publishing of a painting, drawing, engraving or
photograph of a work of architecture or the display of a work of
architecture;
• (t)the making or publishing of a painting, drawing, engraving or
photograph of a sculpture, or other artistic work falling under sub-
clause (iii) of clause (c) of section 2, if such work is permanently situate
in a public place or any premises to which the public has access;

17
• (u)the inclusion in a cinematograph film of—
• (i)any artistic work permanently situate in a public place or any
premises to which the public has access; or
• (ii)any other artistic work, if such inclusion is only by way of
background or is otherwise incidental to the principal matters
represented in the film;
• (v)the use by the author of an artistic work, where the author of such
work is not the owner of the copyright therein, of any would, cast,
sketch, plan, model or study made by him for the purpose of the
work:
18
• Provided that he does not thereby repeat or imitate the main
design of the work;
• (w)the making of a three-dimensional object from a two-
dimensional artistic work, such as a technical drawing, for the
purposes of industrial application of any purely functional
part of a useful device;
• (x)the reconstruction of a building or structure in accordance
with the architectural drawings or plans by reference to which
the building or structure was originally constructed:
19
• Provided that the original construction was made with the consent or licence
of the owner of the copyright in such drawings and plans;
• (y)in relation to a literary, dramatic, artistic or musical work recorded or
reproduced in any cinematograph film, the exhibition of such film after the
expiration of the term of copyright therein:
• Provided that the provisions of sub-clause (ii) of clause (a), sub-clause (i) of
clause (b) and clauses (d), (f), (g), (m) and (p) shall not apply as respects any
act unless that act is accompanied by an acknowledgement—
• (i)identifying the work by its title or other description; and(ii)unless the work is
anonymous or the author of the work has previously agreed or required that
no acknowledgement of his name should be made, also identifying the author;

20
• (z)the making of an ephemeral recording, by a broadcasting
organisation using its own facilities for its own broadcast by a
broadcasting organisation of a work which it has the right to
broadcast; and the retention of such recording for achival
purposes on the ground of its exceptional documentary character;
• (za)the performance of a literary, dramatic or musical work or the
communication to the public of such work or of a sound recording
in the course of any bona fide religious ceremony or an official
ceremony held by the Central Government or the State
Government or any local authority.
21
• Explanation.—For the purpose of this clause, religious ceremony including a
marriage procession and other social festivities associated with a marriage.
• (zb)the adaptation, reproduction, issue of copies or communication to the
public of any work in any accessible format, by—
• (i)any person to facilitate persons with disability to access to works
including sharing with any person with disability of such accessible format
for private or personal use, educational purpose or research; or
• (ii)any organisation working for the benefit of the persons with disabilities
in case the normal format prevents the enjoyment of such works by such
persons:

22
• Provided that the copies of the works in such
accessible format are made available to the persons
with disabilities on a non-profit basis but to recover
only the cost of production:
• Provided further that the organization shall ensure that
the copies of works in such accessible format are used
only by persons with disabilities and takes reasonable
steps to prevent its entry into ordinary channels of
business.
23
• (zc)the importation of copies of any literary or artistic
work, such as labels, company logos or promotional or
explanatory material, that is purely incidental to other
goods or products being imported lawfully.
• (2)The provisions of sub-section (1) shall apply to the
doing of any act in relation to the translation of a
literary, dramatic or musical work or the adaptation of
a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work as they
apply in relation to the work itself.
24
Havells v. Amritanshu (2015)
In this case, the Delhi High Court reached a verdict that
for any advertisement to be qualified as normative use
under the fair use doctrine and under Article 19 (freedom
of speech and expression), it is important that the specific
quality or qualities of the product be specified, which
distinguish the product from that of its competitor, and
that the comparison must be accurate and true.
25
Masters & Scholars of University of Oxford v. Rameshwari
Photocopy Services (2016)
The Delhi High Court, in this renowned case, held that use
of copyrighted material for educational purposes will not
lead to an infringement of copyright. The Court said that
reproducing copyrighted material from coursebooks for
academic purposes does not require prior permission from
the publisher for distribution.
26