KULWANT SINGH SURI Vs. HARINDER SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) KULWANT Singh has filed this petition under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure for quashing the complaint dated August 28, 1992, under Section 63 of the Copyright Act 1957 ("the Act" for short) and the summoning order dated August 14, 1993.

(2.) FOR appreciating the contentions raised in this petition, it is necessary to advert to the allegations made in the complaint against the petitioner by the respondent. The respondent, Shri Harinder Singh, a retired District Education Officer, alleged that he had served in many Government Educational Institution and had knowledge in Science subject. He wrote one book titled "Awaz Jagat" (an elementary book on sound in Physics) in Gurmukhi script and got it published from M/s. University Publishers, Railway Road, Jalandhar City, in the year 1976. This book acquired a great goodwill amongst the Students, School, Colleges, Universities and other Educational Institutions and was considered to be the original work of creation of the complainant. By extensive and uninterrupted use of literary work of 'Awaz Jagat' he became its true and lawful owner under Section 17 of the Act and thus gained the property rights to the exclusive use of the copyright, one Professor, Harinder Singh, illegally, dishonestly and fraudulently for the purpose of acquiring wrongful gain and also taking undue advantage of the similarity of his name with that of the complainant, got published the same book from Shri Kulwant Singh Suri of M/s. Lok Sahitya Parkashan, 186 - Green Avenue, Amritsar, and printed from M/s. B.D. Printers, Killa, Mohalla, Hoshiarpur Adda, Jalandhar City. This book was having the same script and same number of pages. There was absolutely no difference in the two books except that the petitioner changed title of the book to "Awaz Kiwen Paida Hundi Hai." It was displayed on the same counters of Book Shops, Publishers, Schools, Colleges, Universities etc., where the book of the complainant was displayed . In this way the petitioner damaged the goodwill and reputation of the complainant/respondent and deceived the general public and thus committed offences under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 63 of the Copyright Act.

(3.) THE petitioner averred in the petition that he had not committed any offence and in fact the respondent had approached him in the year 1990 and asked him to publish his book on Science subject meant for primary classes, titled as "Awaz Kiwen Paida Hundi Hai" and he agreed. He paid Rs. 1,000/- to the respondent and further agreed to incur all the expenses of publication. He was to give fifty copies of the book free of cost to the respondent and was responsible for sale of the books. After recovering total amount spent by him on publication of the book, he was to pay 10 per cent of the profits to the respondent. He incurred about Rs. 65,000/- on the publication of the books and went from pillar to post in order to arrange for sale of the books. With all his efforts, he sold books worth Rs. 66,000/- and did not earn any profit. The respondent started demanding Rs. 10,000/- from him in cash and 300 copies of the book free of cost. He threatened the respondent with dire consequences in case he failed to fulfil his demand. He further contended that he was not liable for infringement of copyright in the book, nor any prima facie case was made out against him on the basis of the allegations levelled in the complaint, as there were no averments that he had knowingly infringed the copyright in the book 'Awaz Jagat'. Moreover copyright in the book was not registered with the Registrar of copyrights, as required under Section 25 of the Act.