CHERIAN P JOSEPH Vs. K PRABHAKARAN NAIR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal by special leave is against the Judgment of the Additional First Class Magistrate, Trivandrum acquitting the respondent (accused) who was prosecuted for an offence under S.63 of the Copyright Act, 1957 (shortly stated the Act). According to the complainant, he was the author of the books marked as Exx. P1 to P-10 and published by the Educational Publications Syndicate, Trivandrum. It is alleged by the complainant that Exx. P11 to P-20 books in Malayalam taken into custody from the accused are translations of his books, that they were translated and kept for sale without his permission or knowledge and the accused by so doing has infringed his copyright in those books thereby committing an offence punishable under S.63 of the Act.

(2.) Besides the complainant three other witnesses were examined. pws. 2 and 4 are two of the authors of the Malayalam books Exx. P-11 to P-20. They would say that these books were not the translations of Exx. P1 to P-10. According to them prior to their writing these books there was joint deliberations among the various authors at the instance of the complainant and the accused and it was decided to prepare books both in Malayalam and English and the general ideas about the contents of the books were discussed and it was in pursuance of the decision taken there that they have prepared and published the Malayalam Books. Probably they were trying to justify their action. The complainant denied that there was any such discussion or agreement and stated that the accused was his sales agent and as they had fallen out he had got at pws. 2, 4 and some others to translate his books into Malayalam.

(3.) The accused when questioned in court merely denied the commission of the offence. On the evidence produced before him the learned First Class Magistrate found that the offence was not made out. I will quote his finding in his own words: "In these circumstances, I find it is rather difficult to hold that the copyright was vested with the complainant unreservedly and more so, to find that the accused has infringed the copyright of the complainant." I am unable to understand what the learned Magistrate actually means by this. Learned Magistrate also found that the Malayalam books were not true translations of the English Books. In short the finding is that there is no infringement of the copyright. The correctness of these findings are challeged in this appeal.