MISHRA BANDHU KARYALAYA Vs. SHIVRATANLAL KOSHAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an appeal brought by the defendant No. 1, M/s Mishrabandhu Karyalaya, Jabalpur and its partners, from the Judgment and decree of the 5th Additional District Judge, Jabalpur, dated 31st August 1964, decreeing against them, the plaintiff Sheoratanlal Koshal's claim (A) for recovery of Rupees 15,307.04 paise with interest @ 6% per annum thereon from the date of suit, i.e., from 1st January 1963 till realisation, due on account of the arrears of royalty payable to him on the sales effected upto the end of December 1959 of the book entitled 'Saral Middle School Ank Ganeet', written by his son -in -law Maniram Vishwakarma, the copyright of which had been assigned to him; (B) for rendition of account of the sales effected by them of the book in question and other allied publications thereof, as per the Hyderabad Syllabus or otherwise, during the years 1960, 61, 62 and until the date of accounting, so as to ascertain the amount of royalty which had accrued thereon and become payable to him @ 15% of the sale proceeds; (C) for interest @ 6% per annum, on the amount of royalties due each year, payable from 1st January of the following year; (D) for declaring that they dp not have any right, title and interest in the book in question, or, in any other publication thereof, as per the Hyderabad Syllabus, and that the plaintiff had the sole right to such publications; and (E) for perpetually restraining them from printing or publishing the book entitled 'Saral Middle School Ank Ganeet', as originally published, or, in any of its revised or amended forms according to the Hyderabad Syllabus or otherwise.

(2.) THE relevant facts giving rise to this appeal, are these. Under Exception 2 to S. R. 2 below Fundamental Rule 47, the Director of Public Instruction Madhya Pradesh under Memo. No. 4257/S dated 9th November 1951 (Ex. P -1), had permitted the aforesaid Maniram Vishwakarma, Assistant Master, Government Multipurpose Higher Secondary School, Jabalpur, (hereinafter referred to as the "author") to undertake the work of writing a textbook on Arithmetic (in four parts) for use in Clauses V to VIII, subject to the conditions, namely, that (i) he retained no interest in the sale of copyright, (ii) he disposed of the manuscript in lump sum not exceeding Rs. 1,500/ -, and (iii) his legitimate work did not suffer on that account. In terms of that order, the author having written such a book on Arithmetic, effected an outright sale of its copyright in favour of his father -in -law Sheoratanlal Koshal. (hereinafter referred to as the "plaintiff"), in consideration of a payment of Rs. 1,200/ - for such assignment under the terms of an agreement dated 9th March 1962 (Ex. P -4), executed between them, whereby the plaintiff became the assignee of the copyright having been conveyed all rights therein, including the rights of its publication, realisation of profits accruing therefrom and the right to royalty on all its sales, etc.

(3.) THE plaintiff averred that by the agreement dated 13th March 1952 (Ex. P -5), he had not assigned the copyright in the book in favour of the defendants, but had merely created a licence authorising them to print, publish and sell copies thereof which however stands revoked as a result of his notice dated 15th April 1961 (Ex. P -28), and that after the revocation of that licence, the defendants had no right to pirate that work as originally published or in any other manner as they liked, nor had they any right to appropriate to themselves the profits accruing from its sales. That profits have been earned by the defendants from such sales is an irrefutable fact which is unmistakably clear from the facts on record which speak for themselves. The book 'Saral Middle School Ank Ganeet' was first published in or about 1952 and since then there were later editions of this work. Till about the years 1957 -58, that book was in four parts; thereafter, it appeared in the Mahakoshal region in three parts, with the introduction of a unified syllabus; while it still appears in four parts in the old Vidarbha region as before. After publication of the first and subsequent editions, the book has been sold by the defendants ever since the year 1952. It appears that they have also, without reference to the plaintiff, had the book revised to bring it in conformity with the Hyderabad syllabus, and it has in that revised form been sold in the State of Andhra Pradesh.