Delhi High Court Restrains Online Stores Selling Counterfeit S Chand Books, Orders Flipkart To Remove Listings

The Delhi High Court has restrained four online bookstores from selling counterfeit versions of S Chand and Company Limited's textbooks after finding that pirated copies of the publisher's works were being sold through their storefronts on Flipkart. The Court also directed Flipkart to take down the infringing listings. A single bench of Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora passed the ex-parte ad-interim injunction on December 8, 2025. It will remain in force until May 6, 2026. S Chand told the Court that it is a professional publishing house established in 1970 and publishes school, higher education and competitive exam books. It holds multiple trademark registrations for the “S Chand” mark and owns copyright in various literary and artistic works, including illustrations and cover designs. The company discovered in March-April 2025 that counterfeit copies of its books were being sold through four storefronts on Flipkart namely, All Book Point, Fly Case Gallery, Arun Books and Simra Collection. In August 2025, S Chand bought books from two of these sellers, and its printers confirmed they were pirated. The company also said that despite raising a complaint with Flipkart in April 2025, the listings continued to stay active. After reviewing the material, the court held that an ordinary customer on Flipkart would not be able to distinguish the fake books from genuine S Chand publications and would assume the sellers were authorised distributors.The court also noted that none of the bookstores appeared before it and that the addresses listed in their GST records were non-existent. It observed, “In these facts, it prima facie appears that Defendant Nos. 1 to 4 are indeed selling counterfeit books with the intent to ride upon the goodwill and reputation garnered by the Plaintiff in order to benefit commercially.”Finding that S Chand had made out a case for interim protection, the court restrained the four bookstores from printing, reproducing, selling or distributing counterfeit S Chand books, or using its registered marks in any manner.Flipkart was directed to remove the infringing listings and to act within 72 hours on any further complaints by S Chand regarding pirated copies sold by unidentified sellers.The matter will next be listed on May 6, 2026.Case Title: S Chand and Company Ltd v. Kaushal Kumar and OrsCitation: 2025 LiveLaw (Del) 1696Case Number: CS(COMM) 1276/2025For Plaintiff: Advocates Rahul Beruar, Nidhi Jain, Manini Sidhu and Aeshna Raghuwanshi.For Defendant: Advocate Surabhi Pande for Flipkart.Click Here To Read/Download Order

Delhi High Court Restrains Online Stores Selling Counterfeit S Chand Books, Orders Flipkart To Remove Listings

Ayushi Shukla

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