Summary judgment can be granted if the Defendant has no real prospect of succeeding in the matter, and the Court may explore the possibility of deciding the dispute by a summary judgment without a specific application for the purpose.

JUDGMENT

Prathiba M. Singh, J.

I.A. 11848/2023 (u/O. XIII-A CPC) in CS(COMM) 712/2019

1. This pronouncement has been done through hybrid mode.

2. This is an application filed by the Plaintiff- Star India Pvt. Ltd. seeking a summary judgment under Order XIII-A of the Code of Civil Procedure (`CPC'), read with Rule 27 of the Delhi High Court Intellectual Property Rights Division Rules, 2022 (`IPD Rules') decreeing the suit in favour of the Plaintiff.

3. The present suit has been filed by Plaintiff against various rogue websites arrayed as Defendant Nos.1 to 36 (hereinafter, `Defendants') in the plaint. In the suit, the Plaintiff seeks a permanent injunction restraining the said websites from retransmitting, broadcasting, streaming or in any manner communicating to the public the cinematograph film `Chhapaak'.

4. The Plaintiff and its division Fox Star Studios are producers and owners of various television channels. The case of the Plaintiff is that they are a leading production house and own exclusive copyrights in respect of a large number of cinematograph films as also other copyrighted content. The present suit relates to a cinematograph film titled `Chhapaak' which was set for release in January 2020. The film draws inspiration from the life journey of activist Laxmi Agarwal, who endured an acid attack in New Delhi in 2005. She has since evolved into a proponent for the prohibition of acid sales in India.

5. The Plaintiff had apprehensions, owing to various facts pleaded in the plaint, that the Defendants/rogue websites were likely to indulge in unlawful streaming of pirated copies of the said film which would have had adverse monetary impact. Accordingly, the Plaintiff filed the present suit seeking the following reliefs against rogue websites and the Domain Name Registrars (hereinafter `DNRs') of some of the domain names, ISPs and DoT & MeitY in paragraph 59 of the Plaint, which reads as:

"(i) Pass an order and decree of permanent injunction restraining the Defendants No. 1 to 36 (and such other websites/entities which are discovered during the course of the proceedings to have been engaging in infringing the Plaintiffs exclusive rights and Copyrights), their owners, partners, proprietors, officers, servants, employees, and all others in capacity of principal or agent acting for and on their behalf, or anyone claiming through, by or under it, from in any manner communicating, hosting, streaming, and/or making available for viewing and downloading, without authorization, on their websites or other platforms, through the internet in any manner whatsoever, the Film and content related thereto,so as to infringe the Plaintiffs exclusive rights and Copyrights;

ii. Pass an order and decree directing the Defendant No. 39, its directors, partners, proprietors, officers, affiliates, servants, employees, and all others in capacity of principal or agent acting for and, on its behalf, or anyone claiming through, by or under it, to suspend the domain name registration of domain names of Defendants No. 1 to 3 by Defendant No. 39 (GoDaddy) as already identified by the Plaintiff in the instant suit in Memo of Parties or such other domain names that may subsequently be notified by the Plaintiff to be of Rogue Websites which infringe its exclusive rights;

iii. Pass an order and decree directing the Defendant Nos. 40 to 48, their directors, partners, proprietors, officers, affiliates, servants, employees, and all others in capacity of principal or agent acting for and on their behalf, or anyone claiming through, by or under it, to block access to the various websites identified by the Plaintiff in the instant suit at S. No. 2 of the Documents or such other websites that may subsequently be notified by the Plaintiff to be infringing of its exclusive rights;

iv. Pass an order and decree directing the Defendant Nos. 49 and 50 to issue a notification calling upon the various internet and telecom service providers registered under it to block acc