Kapil Sharma     V/S     Piyush Sharma

02 Jul Kapil Sharma     V/S     Piyush Sharma

The present suit is filed by the appellants Kapil Sharma in the Honourable High Court of Delhi before Honourable Judges Manmohan and Asha Menon, challenging an order dated 04th July, 2020 passed by the District Judge, North West, Delhi restraining the appellants herein from publishing and selling the books Pallav Series, Upvan Series, Bhasha Sanjeevani and Baal Sansar. [FAO (COMM) 27/2021, Decided On: 09.02.2021]

The present appeal has been heard by way of video conferencing. The appeal has been filed challenging the order dated 04th July, 2020 passed by the District Judge, North West, Delhi restraining the appellants herein from publishing and selling the books Pallav Series, Upvan Series, Bhasha Sanjeevani and Baal Sansar till the disposal of the suit being CS (Comm.) No. 453/2019.

The appellants submit that the District Judge had erred in his order because the respondent had not proved his rights as sole author in the books published by the appellants and that the District Judge had ignored the fact that the publication house had the copyright in every book published.

The present court observed that the learned District Judge has granted limited injunctions and given cogent reasons for the same. The relevant portion of the said order is reproduced herein below:-

The District Judge stated that the appellants had shown the books in which name of Dr. Piyush Kumar Sharma had been mentioned as author and editor (Lekhak Avem Sampaadak). All these books were published by Mascot Press Pvt. Ltd. There was no written contract or document regarding the relations between the appellants and respondent. In such situation, the court had to decide as to who is the owner of copy right in respect of the books in question. The court asserted that as per Section 17 of The Copy Right Act, 1957, the author of a work shall be the first owner of copy right. All the books mentioned the writer’s name as Dr. Piyush Kumar Sharma i.e. the appellant. This was not disputed by respondents. Section 57 of the Act grants special right to author of a work to claim authorship of the work even after assignment of his copyright.

Accordingly, a prima-facie case is disclosed in favor of the appellant (in that case) that he has copyright of all the books of Pallav Series, Upvan Series, Bhasha Sanjeevni and Baal Sansaar.

Accordingly the respondents (i.e. the appellants in the present suit) were restrained from publishing and selling the aforesaid all the series of books namely Pallav Series, Upvan Series, Bhasha Sanjeevni and Baal Sansaar being authored by the appellants till disposal of the case. Further, respondents were also restrained from publishing and selling any book with same or similar contents of the above mentioned books till disposal of the suit.

Keeping in view the aforesaid, the present appeal was dismissed. However, the appellants were given liberty to move the District Judge for an expeditious disposal of the suit. With the aforesaid liberty, present appeal and application stood disposed of.