( 1 ) THE plaintiffs in O. L. C. S. No. 1 of 1958 on the file Of the District court at Dharwar are the appellants in this appeal. They are a firm of partners called Janata Pictures, doing business at Dharwar of exhibitors and distributors of cinematograph films. Under a document marked Ex. 57 in the case dated 24th October 1953, they secured the rights of exhibition distribution and exploitation of a Hindi talkie film called Nagapanchami in the territory called the Karnatak territory comprising the districts of Belgaum, Dharwar, Bijapur and North Kanara. The producer of the said film is the 4th defendant, Vinod Films, of which the sole proprietor is Vinod C. Desai. He had assigned to the 3rd defendant Chandra Film distributors, whose proprietor is a brother of his by name C. C. Desai, the distribution rights in Respect of what is called the Bombay Circuit , which includes the Karnatak area mentioned above. They commenced screening the film shortly thereafter and continued to do so till about January 1956.

( 2 ) ON or about the 13th of January 1956, the 2nd defendant, Srinivas pictures, started exhibiting a Kannada talkie film called Adarsha Sati at dharwar, produc