CASE NO.:
Appeal (civil) 6472 of 2004
PETITIONER:
Eastern Book Company & Ors.
RESPONDENT:
D.B. Modak & Anr.
DATE OF JUDGMENT: 12/12/2007
BENCH:
B.N. AGRAWAL & P.P. NAOLEKAR
JUDGMENT:
J U D G M E N T
[with Civil Appeal No. 6905 of 2004 and Contempt Petition (Civil) No. 158 of 2006 in Civil Appeal No. 6472 of 2004]
P.P. Naolekar, J.
1. These appeals by special leave have been preferred against the common judgment of a Division Bench of the High Court of Delhi involving the analogous question and are, therefore, decided together by this judgment.
2. Appellant No. 1 — Eastern Book Company is a registered partnership firm carrying on the business of publishing law books. Appellant No. 2 — EBC Publishing Pvt. Ltd. is a company incorporated and existing under the Companies Act, 1956. The said appellants are involved in the printing and publishing of various books relating to the field of law. One of the well-known publications of appellant No. 1 — Eastern Book Company is the law report “Supreme Court Cases” (hereinafter called “SCC”). The appellant publishes all reportable judgments along with non-reportable judgments of the Supreme Court of India. Yet another category included in SCC is short judgments, orders, practice directions and record of proceedings. The law report SCC was commenced in the year 1969 and has been in continuous publication ever since. The name “Supreme Court Cases” has been coined by the appellants and they have been using the same continuously, exclusively and extensively in relation to the law reports published by them. For the purpose of publishing the judgments, orders and proceedings of the Supreme Court, the copies of judgments, orders and proceedings are procured from the office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court of India. After the initial procurement of the judgments, orders and proceedings for publication, the appellants make copy-editing wherein the judgments, orders and record of proceedings procured, which is the raw source, are copy-edited by a team of assistant staff and various inputs are put in the judgments and orders to make them user friendly by making an addition of cross-references, standardization or formatting of the text, paragraph numbering, verification and by putting other inputs. The appellants also prepare the headnotes comprising of two portions, the short note consisting of catch/lead words written in bold; and the long note, which is comprised of a brief discussion of the facts and the relevant extracts from the judgments and orders of the Court. Headnotes are prepared by appellant No. 3-Surendra Malik. As per the said appellant (plaintiff No. 3 in the suits filed in the Delhi High