The court exercised discretion to allow separate trials despite the suit not meeting the requirements of joinder of plaintiffs, and relied on legal provisions to direct the defendants to block access to the rogue websites and issue notifications to disable access within India.

ORDER

I.A. 2718/2022 (exemption)

1. Allowed, subject to all just exceptions.

2. The application stands disposed of.

I.A. 2719/2022 (of the plaintiffs seeking exemption from issuing notice to the defendant No. 44, Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and defendant No. 45, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) under Section 80 CPC)

3. For the reasons stated in the application, the same is allowed and the plaintiffs are exempted from serving advance notice to defendants No.44 and 45 under Section 80 CPC.

4. The application stands disposed of.

I.A. 2720/2022 (of the plaintiffs under Section 12A of the Commercial Courts Act, 2015 read with Section 151 CPC seeking exemption from instituting pre-suit mediation)

5. For the reasons stated in the application, the same is allowed and the plaintiffs are exempted from instituting pre-institution mediation.

6. The application stands disposed of.

CS(COMM) 116/2022, I.A. 2717/2022 (of the plaintiffs under Order XXXIX Rules 1 and 2 read with Section 151 CPC restraining infringement of copyright)

7. This is a suit for permanent injunction, rendition of accounts, damages IPR, copyright etc. filed by six plaintiffs, namely, (i) Universal City Studios LLC., (ii) Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., (iii) Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., (iv) Netflix Studios, LLC, (v) Paramount Pictures Corporation and (vi) Disney Enterprises, Inc.

8. The defendants No.1 to 34 are described as rogue websites indulging in online piracy by permitting access to illegal downloads of the movies of the plaintiffs. Defendants No.35 to 43 are Internet Service Providers ('ISPs'), defendant No. 44 is the Department of Telecommunications ('DoT') and defendant No.45 is the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology ('MEITY').

9. The suit has been filed with the prayer for permanent injunction restraining defendants No.1 to 34 or any such other mirror/redirect/alphanumeric website which appears to be associated with any of these websites from, in any manner, hosting, streaming, reproducing, distributing, making available to the public and/or communicating to the public, or facilitating the same, on their websites, through the internet, in any manner whatsoever, any cinematograph work/content/program/show in relation to which the plaintiffs have copyright.

10. Mr. Saikrishna Rajagopal, learned counsel for the plaintiffs submits that the suit is maintainable in the present form, as the plaintiffs have been affected by these rogue websites on account of the unlawful streaming of their creative and original work and thus, there were common facts and questions of law involved. Reliance has been placed on the decision of a Division Bench of this Court in Microsoft Corporation and Anr. vs. Sujan Kumar and Ors. [order dated 04th February, 2016 in RFA(OS)(COMM) 1/2016], to submit that if separate Court fee was paid as has been done in the present matter, the suit in the present form was maintainable. It is also submitted that in similar suits filed, interim protection has also been granted (reference is made to the orders in Disney Enterprises Inc. & Ors. vs. Kimcartoon.to & Ors. [order dated 27th July, 2020 in CS 275/2020], Universal City Studios LLC and Ors. vs. Myflixer.to and Ors. [order dated 31st August, 2021 in CS (COMM) 401/2021], Universal City Studios LLC and Ors. vs. Dramacool. news and Ors. [order dated 26th November, 2021 in CS (COMM) 605/2021], and Disney Enterprises Inc. & Ors. vs Rlsbb.unblocked.ltda & Ors. [judgement dated 12th March, 2020 in CS(COMM) 594/2019]

11. Order I Rule 1 CPC reads as under :

"ORDER I

Parties to Suits

1. Who may be joined as plaintiffs.All persons may be joined in one suit as plaintiffs where

(a) any right to relief in respect of, or arising out of, the same act or transaction or series of acts or transactions is alleged to exist in such persons, whether jointly, severally or