Delhi High Court - Orders
Lumax Industries Limited vs Fiem Industries Limited & Ors on 28 November, 2023
Author: C.Hari Shankar
Bench: C.Hari Shankar
$~16
* IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI
+ CS(COMM) 781/2023, I.A. 21410/2023 & I.A. 21875/2023
LUMAX INDUSTRIES LIMITED ..... Plaintiff
Through: Mr. Akhil Sibal, Sr. Adv. with
Ms. Vedanta Varma, Mr. Vibhor Kush, Ms.
Namisha Gupta, Mr. Shubhankar Choudhary
and Ms. Asavari Jain, Advs.
versus
FIEM INDUSTRIES LIMITED & ORS. ..... Defendants
Through: Mr. Avadesh Kr. Singh, Mr.
Rajendra Kr. Singh, Ms. Preety Kumari and
Mr. Praveen Gupta, Advs. for D-2
CORAM:
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE C.HARI SHANKAR
ORDER
% 28.11.2023 I.A. 21875/2023 [seeing permission to seize all electronic devices]
1. As directed by this Court, in its order dated 20 November 2023, Defendants 2 and 3, Vineet Sahni and Vishvas Yadav are present in Court.
2. Mr. Sibal, learned Senior Counsel for the plaintiff has drawn my attention to the reports of the learned local Commissioners who had executed the commission in terms of the order dated 30 October 2023 passed by this Court.
3. Paras 11 and 12 of the report of the learned local Commissioner who executed the commission at the premises of Defendant 2, read CS(COMM) 781/2023 Page 1 of 4 This is a digitally signed order.
The authenticity of the order can be re-verified from Delhi High Court Order Portal by scanning the QR code shown above. The Order is downloaded from the DHC Server on 30/11/2023 at 21:50:52 thus:
"11. That in the afternoon a copy of the order of the Hon'ble Court was also sent to Defendant No.2 on his mobile on WhatsApp as he was online. At this point the undersigned was also able to speak to Defendant No.2 through his wife's mobile wherein he refused to share any password or ID for the purpose of retrieving data from the electric devices retrieved. That the undersigned was able to retrieve a phone which was the last phone used by the Defendant No.2 while he was in India which was important device and data retrieval of the same was also important, however nothing could be retrieved from the phone as the password was not shared with the undersigned.
12. Since the Defendant No.2 and his wife were not sharing any password or ID for retrieving the data for mobile phones, Lap top etc., undersigned and Plaintiff Advocate took up the matter with higher officials at Hon'ble High Court. It is submitted that an application was moved by the Plaintiff advocate for permission to seize all the devices and physical documents deemed relevant by the Local Commissioner found at the premises of Defendant No.2 as the password and IDs were not being shared to the undersigned. The said application was allowed by the Hon'ble High Court with permission to seize all electronic devices for which passwords have not been provided with any document that are relevant to the case."
4. Mr. Sibal submits that, as Defendant 2 is present in person, the matter may be placed before the learned Joint Registrar (Judicial) and Defendant 2 may be directed to provide the passwords which, as per Annexure 2 to the report of the learned local Commissioner, were denied by him, so that the order dated 30 October 2023, insofar as it concerns retrieval of data from the said devices, may be carried out.
5. Similarly, Mr. Sibal has drawn attention to paras 8 and 9 of the report of the learned local Commissioner who executed the commission at the premises of Defendant 3, which read thus:
"8. Upon enquiry, he informed that he was having only one mobile phone of "I-PHONE 13" model with two sim cards. Entire data from the said mobile phone and sim cards was copied in a CS(COMM) 781/2023 Page 2 of 4 This is a digitally signed order.
The authenticity of the order can be re-verified from Delhi High Court Order Portal by scanning the QR code shown above. The Order is downloaded from the DHC Server on 30/11/2023 at 21:50:52 blank hard disc of 1 TB by the technical members of the team in presence of Mr. Vishvas Yadav, Mr Varun Deshwal and other members of team of Local Commissioner. The mobile phone had very little data in three e-mail IDs, i.e., 1.
[email protected], [email protected], 3. [email protected]. Out of the said three e-mail IDs, only two e-mail IDs, i.e., [email protected] & [email protected] could be opened and the third E-mail ID, i.e., [email protected] could not be opened as Mr. Vishvas Yadav had forgotten the password of the same. The Technical Persons present there also could not break the password. The entire data out of two emails which could be opened was copied/downloaded in the hard disc with hash values. The volume of total data of the Mobile Phone was 36.9 G.B. and in G-mail IDs was of 86.5 MB.
9. Mr. Vishvas Yadav informed that he did not have any other electronic device with him at that point of time in which data could be found. When he was asked about his laptop, desktops or other devices such as pen drive etc., he informed that his laptop is in employer's office, i.e., in office of M/s Fiem Industries and he was not carrying anything else except the mobile phone with him. Meanwhile, his wife had called more people, i.e., her relatives and an Advocate for her husband's support. Their names are - Mr. Rahul Yadav, Advocate (Mobile No. 9873928782), Mr. Mamta Sen, relative (Mobile NO. 9972849865), one brother whose name was not told."
6. Insofar as Defendant 3 is concerned, the denial of access was only in respect of the rediffmail e-mail account of Defendant 3, of which the password was not provided, and the laptop of Defendant 3 which was stated to be in his office.
7. Mr. Sibal submits that as Defendant 3 is also present in person, he may also be directed to provide access to the laptop which was present in his office and the password of his rediffmail e-mail account so that the order dated 30 October 2023 could be complied with.
8. Accordingly, the matter is placed before the learned Joint Registrar (Judicial) on 8 December 2023. Defendants 2 and 3 shall CS(COMM) 781/2023 Page 3 of 4 This is a digitally signed order.
The authenticity of the order can be re-verified from Delhi High Court Order Portal by scanning the QR code shown above. The Order is downloaded from the DHC Server on 30/11/2023 at 21:50:52 present themselves personally before the learned Joint Registrar on the said date. They shall also provide all passwords which were not provided as per the reports of the learned local Commissioners noted hereinabove along with the necessary password or other data to enable access to the laptop of Defendant 3, which was stated to be present in his office at the time when the local commission was executed.
9. On providing access as above, the data would be retrieved in accordance with the terms of the order dated 30 October 2023 in the presence of the learned Joint Registrar and an official from the IT Department of this Court, deputed by the Registrar for the said purpose. After the data is retrieved, the devices would be returned to Defendants 2 and 3.
10. The application stands allowed accordingly.
11. Let copies of the LC reports as well as the order dated 2 November 2023 be provided to the learned Counsel for Defendants 2 and 3.
C.HARI SHANKAR, J NOVEMBER 28, 2023 ar Click here to check corrigendum, if any CS(COMM) 781/2023 Page 4 of 4 This is a digitally signed order.
The authenticity of the order can be re-verified from Delhi High Court Order Portal by scanning the QR code shown above. The Order is downloaded from the DHC Server on 30/11/2023 at 21:50:52