Does Ilaiyaraaja own the copyrights to the music he composed?

Music maestro Ilaiyaraaja recently made the news headlines after he filed copyright cases against the Malayalam film 'Manjummel Boys' and the Tamil film 'Coolie' for using his songs without getting his permission.
The songs produced under the Echo studio have part ownership from Ilaiyaraaja, and the music composer filed an appeal against the filmmakers using his songs without gaining copyrights from him.A couple of days ago, the Madras High Court explained that the music composer could not gain solo ownership of the song and adjourned the case.
Now, the recording studio, which owns over 4500 songs by the music composer, told the court that after the remuneration received for his work, the composer is ineligible to claim rights. It was also brought to notice that his songs between 1970 and 1990 cannot be copyrighted by Ilaiyaraaja as he did not retain them. The music studio also cited AR Rahman, who claims copyrights to all his songs by specifically stating it in his contract.
News 18 reported that the court has now passed the verdict based on the statements and proof submitted by Echo Studio that the songs composed by the music composer cannot be copyrighted by him and belong to the company.