Section 6 Copyright Act 1957 - Certain Disputes to be Decided by Commercial Court
Section 6 of the Copyright Act, 1957 identifies particular questions concerning publication and the term of copyright in another country that are to be referred to the Commercial Court. The provision also contains a qualification for an insignificant issue of copies or communication to the public.
Updated: 21 September 2026
What Section 6 Covers
Section 6 applies when a question arises about either of the following matters:
- whether a work has been published, or the date on which it was published, for the purposes of Chapter V of the Copyright Act; or
- whether the copyright term applicable to a work in another country is shorter than the term provided for that work under Indian copyright law.
Such a question is referred to the Commercial Court. For the purposes of the Copyright Act, Section 2(fa) defines a Commercial Court, in relation to a State, as a Commercial Court constituted under Section 3, or the Commercial Division of a High Court constituted under Section 4, of the Commercial Courts Act, 2015.
Text of Section 6
6. Certain disputes to be decided by Commercial Court. - If any question arises -
(a) whether a work has been published or as to the date on which a work was published for the purposes of Chapter V; or
(b) whether the term of copyright for any work is shorter in any other country than that provided in respect of that work under this Act,
the question is to be referred to the Commercial Court.
Proviso: If, in the opinion of the Commercial Court, the issue of copies or communication to the public referred to in Section 3 was of an insignificant nature, it is not deemed to be publication for the purposes of that section.
The statutory text above is presented in a cleaned, reader-friendly form. For authoritative wording and amendment notes, consult the official Copyright Office text linked below.
Meaning of Publication Under Section 3
Section 3 of the Copyright Act defines "publication" for the purposes of the Act as making a work available to the public by issuing copies or by communicating the work to the public. This definition is important because Section 6 expressly permits the Commercial Court to disregard an issue of copies or communication to the public that it considers insignificant.
Why the Date and Place of Publication Matter
The date and place of publication can affect the application of provisions dealing with the term of copyright. Section 6 therefore provides a statutory mechanism for resolving specified disputes about whether publication occurred and when it occurred. It also covers the question whether another country gives the work a shorter copyright term than India.
Section 6 should be read with Section 5, which deals with when a work is deemed to be first published in India, and with the relevant provisions of Chapter V governing the term of copyright.
Commercial Court Replaced the Appellate Board
The present provision refers to the Commercial Court. The Tribunals Reforms legislation of 2021 substituted "Commercial Court" for "Appellate Board" in Section 6 and omitted the earlier words referring to the Board constituted under Section 11 and finality of its decision. This change took effect from 4 April 2021.
Official Legal Resources
For verification of the current central legislation, see the Copyright Office - Copyright Act, 1957, Chapter I. The 2021 tribunal reforms affecting Section 6 can also be checked through the official materials published by the Government of India.
Related Copyright Act Provisions
Readers examining Section 6 may also refer to Section 2 - Interpretation, Section 3 - Meaning of publication, Section 4 - When work not deemed to be published or performed in public, and Section 5 - When work deemed to be first published in India.