Delhi District Court
Ashiana Housing Limited vs Ashok Kumar (Unknown Persons) on 21 July, 2025
IN THE COURT OF DISTT. JUDGE
(COMMERCIAL COURT-02)
SOUTH DISTRICT, SAKET COURTS: NEW DELHI
CS (Comm) 403/2024
Ashiana Housing Limited .....Plaintiff
Unit 304, Plot, southern Park
Saket District Centre,
Sector 6, Saket,
New Delhi - 110017
VERSUS
Bhagwati Prasad .....Defendant no. 1
Vikhroli East,
Mumbai, Maharashtra - 400079
Shivani Singh .....Defendant no. 2
Shivani Singh
Centurian Park Lowrise
Sector 1, Noida Extension,
Uttar Pradesh 201 306
Godaddy.com LLC .....Defendant no. 3
14455 North Hayden Raod
Suite 219 Scottsdale, Az 85260
United States of America
The Department of
Telecommunications (DoT) .....Defendant no. 4
Through its Secretary
Ministry of Communications, Government of India,
Sanchar Bhawan, 20, Ashoka Road,
New Delhi-110001
Ministry of Electronics
and Information Technology (MeitY) .....Defendant no. 5
Through the Division of Cyber Laws &
Ashiana Housing Limited vs Ashok Kumar & ors. Page no. 1 of 12
E-Security Government of India,
Electronics Niketan
6, CGO Complex, Lodhi Road,
New Delhi 110003
Date of institution : 22.08.2024
Date of Submissions : 16.07.2025
Date of judgment : 21.07.2025
JUDGMENT
1. Plaintiff has filed suit for permanent injunction against the defendants from infringement of copyright, trademark and passing off, unfair competition, damages and rendition of accounts etc.
2. Case of Plaintiff is that it is using the trademark "ASHIANA" since 1986 inter alia in relation to the business of real estate, building construction etc., and the said trademark has acquired immense repute and fame. The Plaintiff has, as a business practice, used the trademark ASHIANA as its umbrella mark and in order to distinguish various projects/ townships from time to time has adopted various sub-brands/ project names, and one such trademark of the Plaintiff is the mark One 44.
3. It is stated that One 44 is a premium residential project by the Plaintiff that was announced on 09 October, 2023 and officially launched on 12th February, 2024 by popular celebrity Ms. Dia Mirza. With its prime location and a host of world-class amenities, Ashiana's One44 offers an unparalleled living experience that blends Ashiana Housing Limited vs Ashok Kumar & ors. Page no. 2 of 12 modern convenience with traditional charm.
4. It is stated that Plaintiff is the registered proprietor of various trademark(s) / label(s) ASHIANA in Class 16, 19, 35, 36, 37, 41, 42 and 43. The said trademark "ASHIANA", has been depicted in an artistic style and the same is an original artistic work of the Plaintiff within the meaning of Section 2 (c) of the Copyright Act, 1957 and the copyrights in the said works belong to the Plaintiff. It is stated that the said trademark(s) ASHIANA, ONE44, have acquired distinctiveness through the prolonged, continuous and well-established use thereof by the Plaintiff. The revenues generated by the Plaintiff run into several crores are indicative of the enormous goodwill and reputation enjoyed by the Plaintiff under the said marks.
5. Case of Plaintiff further is that the Defendant no. 1 has registered the domain names and is running active website on https://www.ashianagroups.com/ that lists several projects of the Plaintiff in Gurugram, Bangalore, Bhiwadi, Pune, Jaipur, Chennai and Mumbai, and https://ashianaone44jaipur.com/ that details project of the Plaintiff in Jaipur under the name Ashiana Housing One44. It is stated that in the month of June 2024, Plaintiff came across website https://www.ashianagroups.com which provides for an "Enquire Now" and solicits visitor's Ashiana Housing Limited vs Ashok Kumar & ors. Page no. 3 of 12 personal details. The said websites gives no details of persons running the said website or any "About Us" or "Contact Detail". It is stated that no such details of the Registrant of said domain name are available on WhoIS page as well. It is stated that d-2 is listed as Registrant of said domain name. The Plaintiff also became aware of one another website https://www.ashianaone44jaipur.com . It is stated that the said domain name was registered on 09.10.2023, the very same day when news reports of proposed launch of Plaintiff's ONE44 were published and made available to the public. It is stated that not only the said domain names incorporate the Plaintiff's registered trademark ASHIANA, a mere look at the web pages of the said website also would lead any person to believe that the said websites are the official websites of the Plaintiff, which is not the case, and the Defendant no. 1 is clearly using the Plaintiff's well-known and registered trademark ASHIANA to divert the customers of the Plaintiff to its own website and is trading upon the goodwill and reputation of the Plaintiff to make commercial gain.
6. It is stated that Defendant is using artistic devices / logos and trademarks of the Plaintiff along with other literary content proprietary therein regarding the Plaintiff's projects, copyrights in all of which belong to the Plaintiff. It is stated that further investigation revealed that the domain name www.ashianagroups.com has been Ashiana Housing Limited vs Ashok Kumar & ors. Page no. 4 of 12 registered recently on 27.09.2023 and www.ashianaone44jaipur.com has been registered in close proximity of the same and on 09.10.2023. It is stated that the Defendant(s) have recently started to misuse the said trademarks, logos, and copyrights of the Plaintiff with a mala fide and dishonest intention to take undue advantage of the substantial goodwill and reputation of the Plaintiff and to divert the Plaintiff's clients/ customers to deal with the said Defendant(s).
7. It is stated that Defendant No.1 is further with impunity guilty of using the artistic device of the copyrights in which vest with the Plaintiff and the use of the said trademarks by the Defendants thus amount to infringement of registered trademarks, infringement of copyrights and passing-off.
8. Summons of suit and notice of injunction application were issued to the defendants. Name of Defendant no. 2 i.e. Domains by Proxy LLC was deleted from the array of parties as it did not have any role for the compliance on 26.09.2024.
9. On 08.11.2024, Sh. Shivam Tiwari Ld counsel appeared on behalf of D-3 and sought deletion of D-3 from array of parties as it had carried out necessary compliance in Ashiana Housing Limited vs Ashok Kumar & ors. Page no. 5 of 12 respect of infringing domain names/website and domain names were locked and suspended. D-3 was directed not to appear in the matter. Plaintiff filed an application u/O 1 rule 10 CPC seeking impleadment of Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) as D-4 and D-5, which was allowed. DoT and MeitY were impleaded as D-4 and D-5. On that day, Plaintiff also filed an application u/O 6 rule 17 CPC to carry out amendment consequential to allowing its application u/O 1 rule 10 CPC. Since nothing except for consequential changes were added in the plaint and no new fact was brought on record, application was allowed. Amended plaint and amended Memo of parties mentioning name of D-1 &D-2 and D-4 & D-5 were taken on record. The injunction order dated 23.08.2024 would operate against D-1 and D-2 till further orders. Notices were issued to D-1, D-2, D-4 and D-5 by all possible modes.
10. On 03.01.2025, Sh. Neeraj Sinha Ld. Counsel for D-5 had appeared. D-1 and D-2 were served through email however, summons sent to D-1 and D-2 received back with report that address was insufficient/incomplete. Plaintiff was directed to take steps for tracing the complete address of these defendants. D-5 was directed to not to appear further.
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11. On 16.07.2025 D-4 appeared. It was communicated that D-3 to D-5 had complied with orders of court and the infringing websites had been taken down. The plaintiff sought disposal of suit against D1 & D2 under order VIII rule 10 CPC.
12. Ld. Counsel for plaintiff submitted that defendants are aware of the present proceedings against them. It is stated that D-1 and D-2 were served but failed to file written statement despite service within 30 days. It is further stated that as there is no appearance of the Defendants, therefore, the requirement of filing evidence by way of affidavit can be dispensed with and the Court is entitled to pass a judgment on the basis of plaint and documents filed alongwith plaint.
13. Ld. counsel for the plaintiff further submitted that this plaint is supported with a verification/affidavit in the form of statement of truth of AR of plaintiff, therefore no exparte evidence is required to be adduced in view of the observations of our Hon'ble High Court in this regard. Ld. Counsel has placed reliance upon Sporta Technologies pvt ltd and Another vs John Doe and others 2024 SCC OnLine Del 7666 .
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14. In Disney Enterprises Inc. & Anr. v. Balraj Muttneja &Ors. [CS (OS) 3466/2012 decided on 20th February, 2014] wherein it was held that no ex parte evidence would be required. The same has been reiterated by the Court in United Coffee House v. Raghav Kalra and Ors. The relevant observations from the judgment in Disney Enterprises Inc. (supra), are as under:
"3. Though the defendants entered appearance through their counsel on 01.02.2013 but remained unrepresented thereafter and failed to file a written statement as well. The defendants were thus directed to be proceeded ex- parte vide order dated 04.10.2013 and the plaintiffs permitted to file affidavits by way of ex- parte evidence.
4. The plaintiffs, despite having been granted sufficient time and several opportunities, have failed to get their affidavits for leading ex-parte evidence on record. However, it is not deemed expedient to further await the same and allow this matter to languish, for the reason that I have in Indian Performing Rights Society Ltd. Vs. Gauhati Town Club MANU/DE/0582/2013 held that where the defendant is ex parte and the material before the Court is sufficient to allow the claim of the plaintiff, the time of the Court should not be wasted in directing ex parte evidence to be recorded and which mostly is nothing but a repetition of the contents of the plaint."
15. In this case, Mr Manish Sharma Authorized Signatory of Plaintiff company filed his Statement of Truth. In his statement of truth, he stated that statements made in paragraphs 1 to 24 are partly true to his knowledge and partly true to the information and legal advice received. He further stated that contents of paragraphs 25 to 34 were based upon legal advice received and believed to be true. He further stated that there was no false Ashiana Housing Limited vs Ashok Kumar & ors. Page no. 8 of 12 statement or concealment of any material fact, document or record in the Amended Plaint. He stated that all the information was provided in the Amended Plaint was relevant and all the documents in his power, possession, control or custody pertaining to the facts and circumstances of the proceedings initiated by Plaintiff, had been disclosed.
16. Plaintiff has placed on record True copy of Resolution in favour of Mr. Manish Sharma; copy of Certificate of Incorporation of Plaintiff; computer printouts of various trademarks registrations of the Plaintiff; Computer printouts of screenshots of Plainitff's website hosted at www.ashianahousing.com; Computer prinout of WHOIS details of Plaintiff's domain name www.ashianahousing.com; Computer printout of Annual reports of Plaintiff company forthe years 2021-22 and 2022-23; Computer printout of Annual reports of Plaintiff company for the years 2022-2023 (Contd.); Computer printout of Financial Data of Plaintiff company for the years 2021-22 and 2022-2023; Computer printout of representative advertisements and social media press releases of the Plaintiff pertaining to trademark ASHIANA; Computer printout of representative advertisements and social media press releaes of the Plaintiff pertaining to trademark ONE44; computer printout of article published on www.moneycontrol.com on 09.10.2023; Computer printout of WHOIS details of Defendant's domain name https://www.ashianagroups.com/ ; Computer printout of WHOIS details of Defendant's domain name Ashiana Housing Limited vs Ashok Kumar & ors. Page no. 9 of 12 https://ashianaone44jaipur.com/ ; Screenshots of webpages of Defendant's website hosted at https://www.ashianagroups.com/ and Screenshots of webpages of Defendant's website hosted at https://ashianaone44jaipur.com/
17. After hearing the submissions advanced and perusal of material on record, this Court finds no reason to disbelieve the averments of plaint which have remained unchallenged. Defendant No.1 and 2, its directors, partners, proprietors, and their servants, agents, associates, franchisees, licensees, representatives and/or all other persons acting on its behalf are restrained from providing real estate, property consultancy, brokerage and other cognate or allied services under the trademark/ business marks/ project names ASHIANA, ONE44, or any other trademark which may be identical with and/or be deceptively similar to the registered trade mark "ASHIANA" of the Plaintiff thereby infringing the registered trademark "ASHIANA" of the Plaintiff.
Defendant no. 1 and 2, their Directors, partners, proprietors, and their servants, agents, associates, franchisees, licencees, representatives and/or all other persons acting on its behalf are restrained from providing real estate, property consultancy, brokerage and other cognate or allied services under the trademark/business marks/project names ASHIANA, ASHIANAONE144, ASHIANA GROUPS or any other trademark which may be identical with and/or deceptively similar to the trademark "ASHIANA, "ONE 44".
Ashiana Housing Limited vs Ashok Kumar & ors. Page no. 10 of 12 Defendant No.1, its directors, partners, proprietors and their servants, agents, associates, franchisees, licensees, representatives and/or all other persons acting on its behalf are restrained from reproducing, publishing and displaying the artistic works and logo(s) proprietary to the Plaintiff's thereby infringing the copyrights of the Plaintiff.
Defendant No.1 and 2, its directors, partners, proprietors, and their servants, agents, associates, franchisees, licensees, representatives and/ or all other persons acting on its behalf are restrained from using the domain names www.ashianagroups.com and www.ashianaone44jaipur.com or any other domain name identical and/or deceptively similar to the trademarks and domain names of the Plaintiff.
Defendant no. 3 , its directors, associates as the case may be and their servants, agents, associates, franchisees, licensees, representatives and/or all other persons acting on its behalf from transferring the domain names www.ashianagroups.com and www.ashianaone44jaipur.com to any other person. Director no. 3 is further directed to transfer the domain names www.ashianagroups.com and www.ashianaone44jaipur.com to the plainitff.
Defendant no. 4 and 5 are directed to issue necessary notifications/direction directing various Internet and Telecom service providers registered under it to block access to the Ashiana Housing Limited vs Ashok Kumar & ors. Page no. 11 of 12 websites hosted on said domain names www.ashianagroups.com and www. Ashianaone44jaipur.com or such other websites that may subsequently be notified by the plaintiff.
18. In view of the aforenoted findings, the suit of the plaintiff is decreed. A decree of permanent injunction in favour of plaintiff against the defendants are hereby passed. File be Digitally consigned to record room. signed by anuradha anuradha shukla shukla Date:
(Dictated and announced on 2025.07.21
16:08:30
21st July 2025) +0530
(Anuradha Shukla)
District Judge
(Commercial Court-02)
South Distt., Saket, New Delhi.
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