JUDGMENT : The suit in appeal was brought by the plaintiffs for injunction, accounting and for delivery of the copies of a rival publication called 'Hisabi Darpan' which had been published in 1954 by the defendant together with its manuscript, plates and blocks that may be found in possession, custody or control of the defendant, his agents and servants.

2. It was alleged that the first plaintiff Shyam Lal Paharia was the author and plaintiff No. 2 Madbai Ram Paharia the publisher of a book 'Hisabi Machine." It was a ready reckoner giving tables of rates. It was published in 1941 and its second edition was brought out in 1944. According to the plaintiffs, it was thought to bring out a cheaper edition of the book with the title 'Hisabi Darpan', but meanwhile the defendant came to know of the plaintiffs' intention and he published the impugned book 'Hisabi Darpan' in 1954. According to the plaintiffs, the defendant's book was a "colourable imitation and slavish copy of the various charts contained in the plaintiff's book". The price of the impugned book was Rs. 1-8-0 per copy and the plaintiffs alleged that since its publication the sale of their book fell down considerably. They claimed accounts from the defendant of the profits made by him on the sale of the impugned book and the award of such profits to them.

3. The defendant contested the suit and contended that the plaintiffs' books 'Hisabi Machine' and Hisabi Darpan were neither original or literary works but consisted simply mathematical calculations and the plaintiffs could not claim any copyright in their publications. The plaintiffs did not press their contention that the defendant had infringed their copyright in "Hisabi Darpan" but confined their claim to the infringement of the copyright in their publication 'Hisabi machine' by the defendant in his publication 'Hisabi Darpan'.

4. The court below held that

(1) in view of the definition of the word 'literary work' in Section 35 of the Copyright Act of 1911 adopted by the Indian Copyright Act, 1914 the calculation charts could be treated as literary work within the meaning of Section 35 of the Act of 1911;

(2) the plaintiff's copyright had not been infringed by the publication of the defendant's book 'Hisabi Derpan'; and

(3) the plaintiffs were not entitled to any damages. On the aforesaid findings the learned District Judge of Jhansi dismissed the suit. Aggrieved from the decree of the learned Judge the plaintiffs have come in appeal before me.

5. The plaintiffs' book is a fairly bulky volume containing 771 pages. It has a stiff card board cover. It gives the price of commodities at rates beginning with one seer per rupee and the tables give the prices at the aforesaid rate for commodities weighing from one chhataks, two chhataks upto a seer, then two seers and so on upto a maund, then to two maunds, three maunds upto 100 mds. then 200 mds, 300 mds, 400 mds, upto 1000 mds, then 2000 mds, 3000 mds. upto 5000 mds. Similar calculations are carried on for progressively higher rates, viz. Rs. 1-1-0 upto Rs. 25 per seer. The price of the plaintiffs' book is Rs. 5. The Book 'Hisabi Darpan' is a smaller volume containing 106 pages. The calculations for rates start with half a chhatak per rupee and are carried on upto the rates of 4 seers per rupee. Since the rates in the defendant's book start from half a chh. per rupee the tables as given in the plaintiffs' book are not common with those given in the defendant's book upto page 29. Thereafter the tables tally in successive even pages of the defendant's book and it is admitted that the tables in the aforesaid even pages of the defendant's book tally with the tables for the corresponding rates in the plaintiffs' book. The court below has observed :-

"The result is that in the first 29 pages of the book 'Hisabi Darpan', there is found no such calculations which may tally with any calculation contained in the book 'Hisabi Machine'. On the other hand these 29 pages appear to be the result

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