Defendant Nos. 2 and 3 have filed this Application under Order 7, Rule 11 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 for rejection of the plaint. As indicated in the order dated 25-2-2008, the counsel appearing on behalf of defendant Nos. 2 and 3 as well as the other defendants, all of whom supported this prayer for rejection of the plaint, raised the following two fundamental questions with regard to the maintainability of the suit :-

1. Whether, in view of the provisions of sections 33 and 34 of the Copyright Act, 1957, a suit for infringement of copyright would be maintainable at the instance of a registered copyright society in the absence of the owner of the copyright?

2. Whether, in view of the provisions of section 61 of the Copyright Act, 1957, inasmuch as the owner of the copyright has not been made a party to the present suit, the same would be liable to be rejected on the ground of non-impleadment of a necessary party?

The parties and the reliefs claimed :

2. Before I consider the two questions, it would be necessary to indicate who the parties are and what is the nature of the reliefs sought in the present case. As disclosed in the plaint, the plaintiff is a company incor