Delhi High Court Restrains Publishers From Creating Audio Books From The Novels Of Hindi Novelist Anil Mohan

In a first, the Delhi High Court recently restrained publishers (5 in number) from creating audiobooks from the plaintiff's (Anil Mohan Bhardwaj) novels in which he claimed that he has subsisting valid copyright without his written consent. The Bench of Justice Mukta Gupta also restrained the defendants from publishing or re-publishing the novels, without the written consent of the plaintiff (Anil Mohan). The Matter before the Court The bench was hearing the plea of famous Hindi Novelist Anil Mohan Bhardwaj. He stated before the Court that he has written and got published around 750 novels and that around 258 novels have been written under his original name and rest of his novels have been published under several trade names. According to the plaintiff, he entered into several agreements between the period of 2001 to 2015 with the defendant No. 1 (Ravi Pocket Books) and in previous years, some with defendant No. 6, who is the predecessor of the defendant No. 1 for publication of his more than 47 novels, whose copyrights remained with the plaintiff and only the rights of the publication were assigned to the respective defendants. The Grievance of the plaintiff is that the defendants are publishing and republishing the novels without the permission of the plaintiff despite the fact, they have no copyrights in the said novels. Further, it was also submitted that the defendants are charging exorbitantly, more than the agreed prices for the said novels and now, the defendant Nos. 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6 have gone ahead with making audiobooks from the novels giving fictitious names of the books as a whole, which again infringes his copyrights. On the other hand, the counsels for the defendant Nos. 1 & 2 and 4 to 6 stated that the defendants have copyrights in some of the novels and publishing rights in most of the novels. Court's order Considering the averments of the plaint as also the documents filed therewith, the Court found that the plaintiff made out a prima facie case in his favour. The Court said that in case no ad-interim injunction is granted, the plaintiff would suffer an irreparable loss. Consequently, till the next date of hearing before this Court, defendants were restrained from publishing or re-publishing the novels without the written consent of the plaintiff in which valid copyright still subsists with the plaintiff. The defendant Nos. 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6 have also been directed to not change the prices of the novels in which valid copyright subsists with the plaintiff without the consent of the plaintiff and also restrained from making audio books from the plaintiff's novels in which he has subsisting valid copyright(s) without the written consent of the plaintiff. The matter has been listed for further hearing on 19th February, 2021. The Plaintiff (Anil Mohan Bhardwaj) was represented by Advocate Harshit Batra along with Advocates Subhoshree Sil, Jahnvi Sharma & Tavish Prasad. Case title - Anil Mohan Bhardwaj v. Ravi Pocket Books & Ors. [CS(COMM) 525/2020] Click Here To Download Order [Read Order]

Delhi High Court Restrains Publishers From Creating Audio Books From The Novels Of Hindi Novelist Anil Mohan

Sparsh Upadhyay

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