WILEY EASTERN LIMITED Vs. INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) I.A. No. 6521/94 has been filed by the defendant under Order 7 Rule 10A and 11 of the Civil Procedure Code seeking rejection of the plaint or its being returned for presentation to proper court for want of territorial jurisdiction in this court to try the suit.

(2.) The plaintiff No.1 is a printing and publishing house, also marketing books and situated at Delhi. Plaintiff No.2 Prof. U.K. Shrivastava is an employee of the defendant Indian Institute of Management at Ahmedabad ( Gujrat). Plaintiff No.2 has been in the employment of defendant for about twenty years. Plaintiff No.2 is co-author of a book titled "Quantitative Techniques for Managerial Decisions" ( hereinafter called 'the book', fon short).

(3.) The facts leading to the filing of the suit may briefly be stated. According to the plaintiffs, some one claiming to be a student studying in the Institute ( the defendant) sent an anonymous letter dated 29.6.92 wherein he alleged the book, co-authored by plaintiff No.2 and published by plaintiff No.l, having simply lifted material from three other books by three different authors without giving any reference in the book and thereby a breach of copyright of such other authors having been committed. The defendant intending to conduct an investigation into the professional conduct of plaintiff No.2, appointed a committee of experts which gave its finding. The Committee found plaintiff No.2 guilty of plagiarism. The finding has been communicated to plaintiff No.2. The Committee's findings also found their way to the local press. According to the plaintiffs all this has seriously affected the said book commercially and in its marketability. The intellectual property rights of the plaintiffs have been intervened and infringed providing a cause of action to them. The plaintiffs have sought for the following reliefs (to quote from the plaint ):-