Page:Eastern Book Company & Ors vs D.B. Modak & Anr.pdf/3

http://JUDIS.NIC.IN along with their own headnotes which should not in any way be a copy of the headnotes and the text of the plaintiff-appellants.

6. The Division Bench of the Delhi High Court heard the matters finally and has held that the appellants are not right in submitting that although the respondents have a right to publish the raw judgments they could do so only after obtaining the same from the original source, i.e. after obtaining certified copy of the judgment. The Division Bench did not agree with the submission of the appellants that by making certain corrections in the judgments or putting paragraph numbers or arranging the said judgments in a particular manner while printing, the appellants can claim that the copy-edited judgments become their ‘original literary work’. If the right of a person like the appellants who are merely reporting the judgments of the courts is stretched to this extent, then after a judgment is reported by a particular journal, others would be barred from doing the same and the very purpose of making these judgments in public domain, therefore, would be frustrated. The Court has further held that the appellants are not the author of the Supreme Court judgments and by merely making certain corrections therein or giving paragraph numbers, the character of a judgment does not change and it does not become materially different from the original judgment. Once a person has a right to obtain certified copy of the judgment from the Registry of the Court and to publish it, it cannot be said that he has no right to take text of the judgment from the journal where it is already reported. The act of reproduction of any judgment or order of the Court, Tribunal or any other judicial authority under Section 52(1)(q) of the Act, is not an infringement of the copyright. Any person can, therefore, publish judgments of the Courts. The appellants may have happened to have first published the judgments, but the same will not mean that they can have a copyright therein. It is the considered opinion of the Division Bench that no person can claim copyright in the text of the judgment by merely putting certain inputs to make it user friendly. The appellants cannot claim copyright in the judgment of the Court. But it has been held by the Court that reading the judgment and searching the important portions thereof and collecting sentences from various places for the purposes of making headnotes would involve labour and skill; and that there is originality and creativity in preparation of the headnotes, but not when they are verbatim extracts from the judgment and, therefore, there would be copyright in the headnotes to the judgments prepared by the appellants. So far as footnotes and editorial notes are concerned, it cannot be denied that these are the publisher’s own creations and based on publisher’s own research and thus will have a copyright of the appellants. The Division Bench modified the judgment of the Single Judge by directing the respondents that they shall be entitled to sell their CD-ROMs with the text of the judgments of the Supreme Court along with there [sic] own headnotes, editorial notes, if any, which should not in any way be copy of the headnotes of the appellants. The respondents shall also not copy the footnotes and editorial notes appearing in the journal of the appellants. Thus, the Court has not accepted the case of the appellants that they have a copyright in the copy-edited judgments of the Supreme Court. Aggrieved by the decision of the Division Bench of Delhi High Court, the appellants have filed these appeals by special leave.