Novex Communications Private Limited vs NESCO Limited

Gauri Godse, J

By this application the applicant seeks the following reliefs :

“(a) That pending the hearing and final disposal of this Suit, this Hon’ble Court be pleased to issue a temporary order of injunction against restraining Defendant, its directors, their servants, employees, agents, assignees, licensees, representatives, and/or any person claiming through them or acting on their behalf, from publicly performing or in any manner communicating the sound recordings of the songs assigned and authorized to the Plaintiff or allowing their premises or any premises under their control to be used for the said purposes, or otherwise infringing the copyright in any work owned and protected by the Plaintiff;

(b) that pending the hearing and final disposal of the Suit, the Court Receiver, High Court, Bombay or some other fit and proper person be appointed as a Receiver to seize with the assistance of Police all the sound recordings stored in disks, CD, laptops, mobile phones, SD cards, flash drives, hard disks, computers and other media containing the Plaintiff copyrighted works and used by the Defendant and in the possession of the defendant and file a report disclosing all the sound recordings found in possession of the defendant;

c) that pending the hearing and final disposal of the Suit, this Hon'ble Court be pleased to appoint a Court Commissioner or such other fit and proper person as this Hon'ble Court may deem fit for the purposes of attending the events to be organized or conducted by the Defendant with all powers including the power to:

(i) Enter the premises of the Defendant and/or the venue at which any events are organized or conducted by the Defendant at any time and to break open the lock/s, access systems etc if any, should the need arise and;

(ii) make recordings of the entire event or such part thereof of as the Commissioner may deem fit and produce the same before this Hon'ble Court.

(iii) seize disks, CDs, laptops, mobile phones, SD cards, flash drives, hard disks, computers and/or in any other form and/or media containing the Plaintiff copyrighted works and used by the Defendant and in the possession of the Defendant.

(iv) To do the acts as stated in prayer clauses e(i) to e(iii) including to prepare site panchanama/ report and take signature of the persons present at the site; and avail requisite police assistance from the concerned local police station;

(d) In alternative to prayer clause (c) above, pending the hearing and final disposal of the Suit, the Defendant herein be ordered and directed to maintain recordings of all sound recordings played by the Defendant at every event organized or conducted by the Defendant and place the same on record before this Hon'ble Court on quarterly basis or at such time / times as may be directed by this Hon'ble Court.

(e) that pending the hearing and final disposal of the Suit this Hon'ble Court be pleased to pass an order and direction directing the Defendant to deposit a sum of Rs.50,00,000/-(Rupees Fifty Lakhs only) in this Hon'ble Court being the requisite consideration towards grant of non-exclusive on ground public performance rights in sound recordings for the events to be conducted by the Defendant as set out in the Plaint;

(f) For ad-interim reliefs in terms of prayers (a) to (e) above;

(g) For costs; and

(h) For such other and further orders and reliefs as this Hon'ble Court may deem fit and proper in the nature and circumstances of the case may require”

After arguing the matter for some time, learned counsel for the defendant on instructions of Nilesh R. Sonone, Asst. Legal Manager makes a statement that without prejudice to the rights and contentions of the defendant, firstly, the defendant shall not play at its premises the sound recordings for which the plaintiff claims to hold copyrights, without obtaining a proper licence/permission for the plaintiff, secondly, he states that he will intimate its customers/third parties/organisers of the event that they shall not play sound recordings which are subject matter of the suit without taking permission of the plaintiff.

Learned counsel for the defendant on instructions states that the concerned organizers have already approached the plaintiff for necessary permission.

Learned counsel for the plaintiff is agreeable to the aforesaid arrangement without prejudice to the rights and contentions of the plaintiff. The aforesaid statements made by the parties are accepted.

In view of the aforesaid statements made by the parties, no further directions are necessary at this stage.

Defendant is at liberty to file reply, if any, within four weeks from today.

It is made clear that the aforesaid statements are restricted to the event of 31st December 2023. The parties are at liberty to apply before the regular court.

[GAURI GODSE, J.]

This order is corrected/modified as per speaking to minutes order dated 30.12.2023