The judgment establishes the requirement of clear and conclusive proof of knowledge for the offence of copyright infringement under Section 63 of the Copyright Act, 1957.

1. This appeal by special leave is against the judgment of the Additional First Class Magistrate, Trivandrum acquitting the respondent (accused) who was prosecuted for an offence under S.63 of the Copyright Act, 1957 (shortly stated the Act). According to the complainant, he was the author of the books marked as Exx. P-1 to P-10 and published by the Educational Publications Syndicate, Trivandrum. It is alleged by the complainant that Exx. P-11 to P-20 books in Malayalam taken into custody from the accused are translations of his books, that they were translated and kept for sale without his permission or knowledge and the accused by so doing has infringed his copyright in those books thereby committing an offence punishable under S.63 of the Act.

2. Besides the complainant three other witnesses were examined. pws. 2 and 4 are two of the authors of the Malayalam books Exx. P-11 to P-20. They would say that these books were not the translations of Exx. P-1 to P-10. According to them prior to their writing these books there was joint deliberations among the various authors at the instance of the complainant and the accused and it was decided to prepare books both in Malayalam and English and the general ideas about the contents of the books were discussed and it was in pursuance of the decision taken there that they have prepared and published the Malayalam Books. Probably they were trying to justify their action. The complainant denied that there was any such discussion or agreement and stated that the accused was his sales agent and as they had fallen out he had got at pws. 2, 4 and some others to translate his books into Malayalam.

3. The accused when questioned in court merely denied the commission of the offence. On the evidence produced before him the learned First Class Magistrate found that the offence was not made out. I will quote his finding in his own words: "In these circumstances, I find it is rather difficult to hold that the copyright was vested with the complainant unreservedly and more so, to find that the accused has infringed the copyright of the complainant." I am unable to understand what the learned Magistrate actually means by this. Learned Magistrate also found that the Malayalam books were not true translations of the English Books. In short the finding is that there is no infringement of the copyright. The correctness of these findings are challeged in this appeal.

4. Under S.17 of the Act the author of a work shall be the first owner of the copyright therein. Here in Exx. P-1 to P-10 the complainant is shown as the author of the literary works. This fact is not disputed. He is, therefore, the author of the books.

5. What is copyright is stated in S.14 (1) of the Act. It says:

"(1) For purposes of this Act, 'copyright' means the exclusive right, by virtue of, and subject to the provision of, this Act

(a) in the case of a literary, dramatic or musical work, to do and authorise the doing of any of the following acts, namely

(i) to reproduce the work in any material form; (ii) to publish the work; (iii) to perform the work in public;

(iv) to produce, reproduce, perform or publish any translation of the work". So pw.1 as the author has the exclusive right to publish, the translation and no other person has the right to translate the complainant's works.

6. Then we come to S.51 of the Act which deals with the question as to when a copyright shall be deemed to be infringed. S.51 reads: "Copyright in a work shall be deemed to be infringed

(a) when any person, without a licence granted by the owner of the copyright or the Register of copyrights under this Act or in contravention of the conditions of a licence so granted or of any condition imposed by a competent authority under this Act

(i) does anything, the exclusive right to do which is by this Act conferred upon the owner of the copyright, or

(b) when any person

(i) makes for sale or hire or sells or lets for hire or by way of trade displays or offers for sa