Following Salim Merchant’s announcement over the release of Sidhu Moose Wala’s song Jaandi Vaar on Friday, the late singer’s family instituted a suit for permanent injunction against Salim-Sulaiman and their company, seeking restraint on the release of the song. On Monday, a Mansa (Punjab) court gave an ex-parte ad-interim order restraining the release of Jaandi Vaar. Salim, who had made the announcement on his Insta handle, had also said that the song would be available as NFT for the public on a digital platform.

Samarjit Patnaik, partner at Karanjawala & Co, the law firm that is representing Moose Wala’s family in the matter told us, “The Hon’ble Court has restrained the song’s release along with a direction restraining them from using, broadcasting, releasing, uploading, streaming the song in any manner. The music producers do not have the rights to release Moose Wala's song just because the recording was done in the studio where they were present.”

Punjabi music producer Bunty Bains, who was managing Sidhu’s releases with him, said, “We have been requesting Mr Merchant not to release Sidhu’s song or sell his e-signatures, merchandise and NFTs without obtaining the license and permission from his family. But this announcement on Friday by Salim on his Instagram handle caught us by surprise. Then too we requested him against doing so, but he didn’t take down the announcement for the song and lured Sidhu’s fans to buy unlicensed NFT’s, E-signatures and merchandise in Sidhu’s name. We want this case to be exemplary for others too who are contemplating leaking or releasing Sidhu’s music without his family’s permission. We are keeping tabs on all these activities and want those who violate this to be cognizant of this fact.”

Meanwhile, Salim posted an update on his Insta handle, saying, “We have decided to defer the release of Jaandi Vaar and will finalise the next release date after taking the blessings of Sidhu’s parents.”

Recently, music composer Salim Merchant posted on his Instagram handle that he was going to release a track by the late singer, Sidhu Moose Wala shortly. Salim says the track, Jaandi Vaar, a duet with Afsana Khan, was recorded in Chandigarh last year in July at a recording studio that belongs to Salim’s friend. Soon after this announcement, Moose Wala’s family and professional advisor took to social media, urging Salim against this release.

Addressing Salim’s post, Punjabi music producer Bunty Bains wrote on social media, “This release has not been authorised by Sidhu Moose Wala’s family yet. We have requested you multiple times even when you wanted to release the song just 3-4 days after Shubh veer left us and at that time as well during those circumstances Shubh veer’s father saab had sent you a voice note to hold on for any release so that family can first take some time and then discuss and understand the entire details of project with you and accordingly the future plan can be decided. I would really request you with folded hands that while we are anyways disappointed with various people putting out unreleased and leaked songs, we are hoping to get the support from such a well known artist and professional like you and to not put out any song yet without family’s confirmation and approval. Sidhu’s parents would be very pleased to meet you soon and discuss this project in person (sic).”

In his announcement, Salim also said that the song will be available as NFT on an online platform for people to buy. To this, Bains added, “Commercializing his vocals as well as his name in the form of NFT in addition to offering unlicensed merchandise of Sidhu Moose Wala… is entirely illegal.”

When we reached out to Salim, he replied, “All I can say is I wish Sidhu was alive, he wanted this collab as much as we did. Nothing else really matters.”