Delhi High Court - Orders
Rule 7 Cpc) Fees) Dsm Fresh Foods Pvt. Ltd vs Ankur Gupta & Ors on 16 June, 2020
Author: Mukta Gupta
Bench: Mukta Gupta
$~3
* IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI
+ CS (OS) 141/2020
I.A. 4508/2020 (under Order XXXIX Rule 1 and 2 CPC)
I.A. 4509/2020 (under Order XXVI Rule 9 and 10 and Order XXXIX
Rule 7 CPC)
I.A. 4510/2020 (exemption from physical signatures and attestation)
I.A. 4511/2020 (under Section 149 CPC -extension for filing court
fees)
DSM FRESH FOODS PVT. LTD. .....Plaintiff
Represented by: Mr. Ranjan Raj, Ms. Shikha Thakur,
Mr. Hriday Kochhar, Advs.
versus
ANKUR GUPTA & ORS. ..... Defendants
Represented by: Mr. Prasouk Jain, Adv. for
D-1,2,3,5&6.
Mr. Bharat Bhushan, Adv. for D-4.
CORAM:
HON'BLE MS. JUSTICE MUKTA GUPTA
ORDER
% 16.06.2020 The hearing has been conducted through Video Conferencing. I.A. 4510/2020 (exemption from physical signatures and attestation) I.A. 4511/2020 (under Section 149 CPC -extension for filing court fees)
1. Exemption allowed subject to just exceptions.
2. Plaintiff is also exempted from filing the affidavit in support of the plaint and the applications as also the Court fees at the moment and the same will be filed within 72 hours of the resumption of the normal Court functioning.
3. Applications are disposed of.
CS (OS) 141/2020 & I.A. 4508/2020 (under Order XXXIX Rule 1 and 2 CPC)
1. Plaint be registered as suit.
CS (OS) 141/2020 Page 1 of 52. Issue summons in the suit and notice in the application.
3. Learned counsels for the defendant Nos.1,2,3,5&6 and defendant No.4 accept summons in the suit and notice in the application.
4. Written statement and reply to the application be filed within 30 days. Replication and rejoinder affidavit be filed within three weeks thereafter.
5. Learned counsel for the defendant No.1,2,3,5&6 states that defendant No.7 company is no more in existence and that a requisite form for striking off the company has been filed on 2nd June, 2020.
6. Case of the plaintiff is that the plaintiff company is involved in the business of buying, selling, importing, exporting etc. of meat products. Defendant Nos. 1 to 6 are the ex-employees of the plaintiff company. Defendant No.1,2,3&6 have resigned from the company whereas services of defendant No.4 and 5 were terminated by the plaintiff on 11th April, 2020 in terms of Clauses 12, 13, 14, 15, 17 and 19 of the appointment letter as they were found to be disregarding to the policy of the plaintiff company and their obligations of employment.
7. Defendant Nos.1,2 and 3 constituted a company i.e. defendant No.7 with the wives of defendant No.5 and 6 and mother of defendant No.4 as its shareholder. The said company i.e. defendant No.7/ Grams Food Pvt. Ltd. was incorporated on 17th March, 2020 with its registered office as M-17, First Floor, Orchid Island, Sector-51, Gurgaon, Haryana which is the residential address of defendant No.2. The defendant No.7 company started providing identical services as that of the plaintiff and defendant Nos. 1 to 6 in violation of their employment clauses by setting up defendant No.7 mis- utilized the information and data received by them in employment of the CS (OS) 141/2020 Page 2 of 5 plaintiff, for running the defendant No.7 company. The confidential and business sensitive information relating to the plaintiff company, which were mis-utilized by the defendant's company, includes client details, price quotes, strategies, applicable discounts, specific requirements of the clients etc.
8. Considering the facts stated in the plaint, plaintiff has made out a prima facie case in its favour and in case no ad-interim injunction is granted, the plaintiff will suffer an irreparable loss. The balance of convenience also lies in favour of the plaintiff.
9. Though learned counsel for the defendant Nos.1,2,3,5&6 states that an application has been filed with the RoC seeking striking off of the defendant No.7 on 2nd June, 2020 and that there were zero operations of the defendant No.7 company, however still to ensure that data of the plaintiff which is in possession of the defendants is not mis-utilized, in any further manner, the plaintiff has made out a case for grant of ad interim injunction. Consequently, an ad-interim injunction is passed in favour of the plaintiff and against the defendants in terms of prayer (i) of Para 17 of the application.
10. List the suit and application on 17th September, 2020. I.A. 4509/2020 (under Order XXVI Rule 9 and 10 and Order XXXIX Rule 7 CPC)
1. Learned counsel for the defendant No.4 states that the residential address of defendant No.4 has changed to Sector-1, Block 88, Pushp Vihar, Flat No.3, New Delhi.
2. In view of the facts noted above and as the defendants are acting in breach of their obligation relating to confidentiality, this Court finds that a CS (OS) 141/2020 Page 3 of 5 Local Commissioner as prayed for is required to be appointed to visit the premises of defendant No.2, which is the registered office address of defendant No.7; as also of defendant Nos.1, 4 and 5 at the address given below.
a. Defendant No.1 at 516, Ground Floor, Niti Khand-III, Indirapuram, Ghaziabad;
b. Defendant No.4 at Sector-1, Block 88, Pushp Vihar, Flat No.3, New Delhi;
c. Defendant No.5 at 375, 1st Floor, Saraswati Vihar Housing Board, MG Road, Gurgaon, Haryana- 122001.
d. Defendant Nos.2 and 7 at Plot No.452, Pace City 2, Udyog Vihar 6, Sector 37, Gurugram-122018.
3. Consequently, Mr. Pradeep Chhindra, Advocate (Mobile No. 9310914012) is appointed as the Local Commissioner to conduct the local commission at the four addresses as mentioned above. The fee of the Local Commissioner is fixed at ₹2 lakhs, to be borne by the plaintiff besides the out of pocket expenses. The learned Local Commissioner will be duly assisted by an IT expert to be provided by the plaintiff.
4. The Local Commissioner will seize the following assets from the defendants and after taking possession thereof, will hand over the custody to the duly authorised representative of the plaintiff:-
Name Assets Particular Model No. Asset Details Ankur Gupta (i)Laptop (i) Lenovo Ideapad (i) Sr.No.MPIBY9TY (Defendant 5205 No.1) Rahul Kant (i) Laptop No.1 (i) Dell-i5 8th gen (v) Sr.No.2XWYL42 (Defendant (ii) Laptop No.2 (ii) Dell- i7 vPro (vi) Sr.No.28305959257 No.4) (iii) Adaptor (vii) Sr.No.DP/NOMGJN9
(iv) Mouse (viii) Wireless Bluetooth Satish (i) Laptop (i) Dell Vostr Core i5 (i)Sr.No.DXFJIW2 Ramanand (ii) Power Adaptor 30319637330 CS (OS) 141/2020 Page 4 of 5 Mishra (ii) DP/N OG6J41 (Defendant No.5)
5. Local Commissioner will (i) prepare an inventory after assessing the books of accounts, hard disks, laptops/ computer systems containing confidential information of the plaintiff's company, (ii) will also prepare the mirror images of laptops as noted in para 4 above, as also other laptops/ PCs or mobile phones available wherein on checking it is found that confidential data of the plaintiff's company has been transferred or stored; (iii) after taking the mirror images of the other laptops and PCs etc. available, the Local Commissioner will hand-over the laptops/PCs except those mentioned in para 4 above to the defendant or its representative on superdari with directions to produce the same as and when required by the Court.
6. In case required, the Local Commissioner will be free to take Police Assistance from the SHO concerned of the area, where the local commissions are to be executed. The SHO concerned are directed to provide necessary assistance and protection to the learned Local Commissioner.
7. Report of the Local Commissioner be filed within 30 days.
8. Application is disposed of.
9. Order be uploaded on the website of this Court.
MUKTA GUPTA, J.
JUNE 16, 2020 'ga' CS (OS) 141/2020 Page 5 of 5