S. Ravindra Bhat, J.

1. The Plaintiff, is a private limited company is a Joint Venture between Hindustan Lever Ltd and Emergent Genetics LLC. It is engaged in research, development, processing and sale of seeds in India. The second Defendant - Pradham Biotech Pvt. Ltd. is an incorporated Indian company; the first, third and fourth Defendants are the Plaintiff's former employees. The fifth Defendant is the Chief Executive of Seeds India, a partnership firm which processes and packages seeds, which also used to process seeds for the Plaintiff between 13th Nov. 2001 and 17th Oct. 2003. The present order will dispose of two applications - one by the Plaintiff, seeking temporary injunction, and the other, by the Defendant, seeking rejection of the plaint.

2. The suit alleges that till March 2003, the first Defendant was the Plaintiff's National Sales Co-ordinator; as on the date of filing the suit, he was director of the second Defendant and in-charge of decision-making in key areas. Till January 2003, the third Defendant used to be in charge of the Plaintiff's sales, production and processing; as on the date of filing the suit, he was principal share holder and CEO, as well as Managing D