Delhi District Court
Novex Communications Private Ltd vs M/S City Bar on 8 December, 2017
IN THE COURT OF SH. SIDHARTH MATHUR,
ADJ2 (NORTHWEST), ROHINI COURTS, DELHI.
NOVEX COMMUNICATIONS PRIVATE LTD. ........... Plaintiff
Through
Sh. Jasdeep Dhillon,
Advocate.
VERSUS
1. M/S CITY BAR
Through its Manager
2. M/s RSP Gourmet Foods Pvt. Ltd. ........... Defendants
NEMO
JUDGMENT
1. New No. : 79038/16.
2. Under Section : Permanent Injunction
3. Date of Institution : 28.09.2016.
4. Date of Final Order : 08.12.2017.
5. Final Order : Decreed.
BRIEF FACTS
1. Plaintiff is a company incorporated vide certificate Ex. PW1/1. Its Head office is situated in Mumbai with its branch office at Unit No. 362, Aggarwal City Plaza, Plot No. 17, DC Mangalam Place, Sector3, Rohini, Delhi since 09.12.2014. It operates in the field of sound recording as an assignee, licensee and authorised agent of various copyrights (CS No. 79038-16) (Page No. 1/4) owners and thus deals with their copyrighted songs. The owners of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. had authorised the plaintiff to deal with its Copyrighted songs vide Assignment Deed Ex. PW1/4 and authorisation letter Ex. PW1/5. It had authorised the plaintiff also to deal with infringement of its copyright. The plaintiff also has exclusive 'on ground performance rights' of all the songs copyrighted by Zee Enterprises.
The defendant No. 1 is a hotel owned by defendant No. 2. The defendants had infringed the copyright of Zee Enterprises by playing the copyrighted songs without any authority or license from the plaintiff in the premises of defendant No. 1 on 03.06.2016 when it played songs part of the legal notice Ex. PW1/8 dated 25.07.2016. Despite having no authority to play such songs and the service of the legal notice, the defendants continued to play the same and thus infringing the copyright assigned to the plaintiff, which is totally unlawful. In order to prevent further infringement, the suit for permanent injunction seeking to restrain the defendants from further infringement and for rendition of accounts was filed on 28.09.2016.
2. The summons were sent to the defendants. Their counsel Ms. Ashima Jain appeared on 17.02.2017. But, the defendants thereafter stopped appearing and were proceeded exparte on 27.09.2017. They never filed even their WS.
TRIAL
3. During the trial, the plaintiff examined its AR PW1 Bhavna Chugh vide affidavit Ex. P1 wherein she reiterated the plaint. She also proved the authorisation letter Ex. PW1/3 of (CS No. 79038-16) (Page No. 2/4) Sh. Suraj Kumar through whom the suit was filed. She was not crossexamined since the defendants remained exparte.
4. The testimony of PW1 has gone unrebutted. There is no challenge to the same. The defendants remained exparte. There is no reason to disbelieve the testimony of PW1 which clearly proves that the plaintiff is the custodian of the Copyrights of Zee Enterprises and that these copyrights have been infringed by the defendants on 03.06.2016 by playing the copyrighted songs without requisite license.
RELIEF
5. For the reasons assigned hereinabove, the suit of the plaintiff is decreed in the following manner:
1. A decree of permanent injunction is passed thereby restraining the defendants and anyone acting on their behalf from publically performing or in any manner communicating the sound recording of the songs copy righted by the plaintiff to the public or allowing their premises to be used for the said purposes without appropriate license from the plaintiff is passed in favour of the plaintiff and against the defendants ;
2. A preliminary decree for the rendition of accounts requiring the defendants to render full and true accounts of all the revenues and profits earned by playing the copyrighted songs of the plaintiff without license is also passed in favour of the plaintiff and against the defendants ; and
3. The plaintiffs are also awarded the costs of the suit.
(CS No. 79038-16) (Page No. 3/4)
6. Decreesheet be accordingly prepared
ANNOUNCED IN THE OPEN COURT
ON 08.12.2017
(SIDHARTH MATHUR)
ADJ02 (NORTHWEST), ROHINI,
DELHI.
(CS No. 79038-16) (Page No. 4/4)