SHASHANK SHEKHAR MISHRA Vs. AJAY GUPTA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a suit for permanent injunction, rendition of accounts, delivery up of the infringing material and damages. The plaintiff, who is studying in Sri Ram Murti Smarak Institute of Technology, Barielly, claims to be a tech savvy professional with vast experience in the field of web technologies including PHP, HTML, CSS, Java Script, J- Query, Wordpress, Photoshop etc. According to plaintiff, he is the author of "Quizpro Wordpress Plugin", using which the Wordpress users can easily use quiz on their Wordpress Blogs or Wordpress driven websites. It is alleged that on 9th November, 2010, the plaintiff purchased a laptop for a consideration of Rs.34,100/- and used it extensively for the purpose of web designing as well as doing and processing various technology related activities on the internet. He was also storing various user IDs, passwords and other data in the laptop. Confidential financial information of the plaintiff including details of his mother s bank account as well as credit card information belonging to his cousin brother was stored in the laptop. He was also using the laptop for creating, storing and retaining the original web designing templates, designs and styles.

(2.) The plaintiff claims to have been very active on ecommerce website www.algulfnet.biz and also claims to have got various accounts therein. www.algulfnet.biz is a service driven website which offers netizens the opportunity to participate in surveys and earn online and also purchase subscription for Surveys Online Today E-Zine along with Panelist Training. The aforesaid website provides service in many forms and for a variety of purposes. The website works on the superstructure of ePins, wherein one pin is equivalent to Rs.3600/- of actual commercial value. The website allows the user, who has generated a minimum specified number of points, to monetize those points and redeem them for actual money, one point being equivalent to Rs.50/-. According to the plaintiff, he had accumulated thousands of points in his various accounts by participating in various surveys conducted by www.algulfnet.biz and had generated 212 ePins which are being displayed in his two accounts. Thus, these e-pins are virtual data and information in the electronic form, which are capable of being translated into physical money. The value of these 212 e-Pins is alleged to be Rs.763200/-.

(3.) The case of the plaintiff is that on 25th April, 2011, the defendant who was known to him, he being a user of the website www.algulfnet.biz, barged into his room along with 2 anti social elements and snatched away his laptop which contained confidential data and information including sensitive personal data, personally identifiable information, banking and credit card details as well as his 212 ePins. He also threatened to make public all photographs, messages etc. so as to tarnish the reputation of the plaintiff. It is alleged that the laptop, snatched by the defendant contained plaintiffs templates and designs, wordpress themes designed in PHP technology, credit card information of his cousin brother, his photographs with friends and colleagues, a text and excel file of 212 ePins, usernames and passwords of 52 extra algulf accounts, usernames and passwords of the email accounts and other websites, usernames and passwords of the server and the plaintiff s 11 websites hosted by the plaintiff, plaintiff s PHP source codes of computer software, pan card details and ICICI bank account details of his mother, private messages, admin passwords of the website which the plaintiff had developed, user name and password of the plaintiff for facebook page as well as his user name and password for the website www.godaddy.com. The plaintiff has sought injunction restraining the defendant infringing his copyright carrying out any business or website containing the copyright material belonging to the plaintiff and from transferring the aforesaid copyright material to any person. He has sought an injunction restraining the defendant from downloading, extracting, distributing, transmitting, publishing, releasing or disclosing the personal, confidential data and information of the plaintiff. He has also sought mandatory injunction directing defendant to handover the original laptop of the plaintiff to him. The plaintiff has also sought delivery up of all CDs, inlay cards, hard disks etc. containing the pirated material. Rendition of accounts has also been sought by the plaintiff amounting to Rs.20,10,000/- .