JUDGMENT :

Gita Mittal, J.—

1. The plaintiff before this Court is a company limited by guarantee and registered under the Companies Act, 1956. It is also registered as a Copyright Society u/s 33 of the Copyright Act, 1957. On allegations that the defendants have committed flagrant violation of the rights of the plaintiff in the works assigned to him by numerous members, the plaintiff has sought the following relief in the present suit:

a) An order for permanent injunction restraining the defendants, its agents, employees and all others acting on its behalf from playing of music by live or any other means, or by way of mechanical devices at the hotel operated by the Defendants and /or channeling musical and or literary works of the plaintiff or those of its sister copyright societies, by way of mechanical devices such as Radio, Cable TV and /or RA. systems within the Defendants' premises without obtaining a license from the plaintiff Society and without paying the requisite royalties, thereby amounting to infringement of the plaintiff Society's performing Rights in the same.

b) An order for damages to the tune of Rs. 20,01,000/- and a decree for the same be passed in favor of the plaintiff's Society and against the defendant.

c) An order for costs of the proceedings.

2. The case set out in the plaint has been established in the affidavit by way of evidence in this behalf. It is stated that the plaintiff is a non-profit making body established on 23rd August, 1969 to monitor, protect and enforce the rights, interest and privileges of its members which consists of authors, composers and publishers of literary and musical works, as well as on behalf of members of other sister societies who are owners of copyright in their literary and musical works. The plaintiff has contended that it is, in fact, the sole representative body as also the sole national copyright society of authors, composers and publishers of literary and musical works. Its members consist not only of persons from this country but also other nationalities.

3. After the amendment of the Copyright Act in 1994, the plaintiff-society was re-registered as a copyright society u/s 33(3) of the amended Act. The plaintiff-society is thus a registered copyright society u/s 33(3) of the Copyright Act, 1957 and has received a certificate of registration from the Registrar of Copyrights, Government of India in Form No. IID dated 27th March, 1996 authorising it to carry on copyright business in literary and musical works and/or in any words or any action intended to be sung, spoken or performed with the music.

4. The primary task of the plaintiff society is to collect royalties from users of music and thereafter disburse the same to the owners of the copyright in the music who inter alias it represents. The rates of royalties are decided collectively by members of the plaintiff society.

5. The plaintiff has stated that it is affiliated to around 194 world societies which are included within the Federation known as CISAC, Paris (established under the aegis of UNESCO and the WIPO Charter). By virtue of the assignment deeds executed in its favor by its members, the plaintiff has exclusive ownership of the public performance rights in respect of the literary and musical work of its members which have been assigned to it. A list of 32 such assignment deeds have been proved before this Court as Exhibits P-4 to P-35. The plaintiff has fixed a tariff structure in respect of communication by third parties to the public of the literary and musical work of the members of the plaintiff-society in which copyright has been assigned to the plaintiff. Such tariff fixation is effected in the annual general meeting of the plaintiff-society, which is guided by the importance or the value addition of music to the user organizations.

The plaintiff has proved before this Court the tariff card of The Indian Performing Right Society Ltd. as Exhibit P-36 wherein the rates at which license is given to different