J U D G M E N T

This judgment/order will now dispose of captioned main suit and captioned two applications.

2. 16.11.2022 is the date of presentation of plaint and date of institution of suit qua captioned main suit which has been filed with prayers seeking reliefs for alleged infringement of plaintiff's purported copyright for re-making and dubbing the script, story line, casting of characters, dialogues, sequence of scene and songs in a Malayalam Feature Film with title 'DESHARADHAM' [hereinafter 'suit movie' for the sake of convenience and clarity].

3. It is the case of the plaintiff that alleged infringement in the aforementioned purported copyright is vide a Tamil cinematograph film with title 'Yugi' ('a{fp'') [hereinafter 'said movie' for the sake of convenience and clarity] which is scheduled for theatrical release besides release on OTT platforms tomorrow i.e., 18.11.2022. To be noted, captioned suit has been moved by way of Lunch Motion today.

4. Mr.R.Abdul Mubeen along with Mr.S.Jerome, learned counsel on record for plaintiff adverting to the plaint submitted that plaintiff is a cinema Director-cum-writer having wide exposure / experience in film making and direction; that the plaintiff is in the cinema field from 1983, he has scripted and directed a Tamil film, worked in more than 25 films and is a member of various Cine field Associations in Tamil Nadu besides being a recipient of several awards such as Kalaimamani Award, Ezhuthu Selvam Award and Nimay Ghosh Award for contribution to the cinema field; that the first defendant is in the trade of producing and releasing films and that Defendants 2 to 6 are film producers qua a production house called 'UAN Film House' and the 8th defendant is in the business of purchasing distribution rights of the films in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and other languages under the name '11:11 Production/Distribution Company'; that the plaintiff in the course of his business had acquired story rights to remake and dub a Malayalam feature film i.e., suit movie; that the plaintiff got such rights by way of a Letter of Assignment dated 14.06.1990 (Plaint Document No.1); that the plaintiff acquired such rights from the first defendant by paying Rs.2,00,000/- [Rupees Two Lakhs only] as royalty; that the story in suit movie pertains to Surrogacy, surrogate mother and a legal tussle in this regard; that the plaintiff came to know about suit movie from trailer and audio format of suit movie, which were advertised in social media platform; that the plaintiff has reliably learnt from authentic sources that dialogues, scene sequences and characters in suit move are such that it violates plaintiff's copyright; that the plaintiff caused a public notice in Tamil daily 'Malai Malar' to be issued on 14.11.2022 mentioning about plaintiff's copyright in said movie; that the release of said movie is in the anvil; that captioned applications have been taken out with prayers for interim injunction restraining release of suit movie and appointment of Advocate Commissioner for a private exhibition.

5. As the date of presentation of plaint and institution of suit are post

20.08.2022, this Commercial Division deems it appropriate to examine the captioned suit in the light of Section 12A of 'The Commercial Courts Act, 2015 (Act 4 of 2016)' [hereinafter 'CCA' for the sake of brevity, convenience and clarity] as elucidated by Hon'ble Supreme Court in Patil Automation case law [Patil Automation Private Limited and Ors. Vs. Rakheja Engineers Private Limited reported in 2022 SCC OnLine SC 1028 ].

6. Section 12A was not in the statute book when CCA kicked in on

23.10.2015 but it was introduced in CCA in and by an amendment on and from 03.05.2018. Sub-sections (2) and (1) of Section 12A of CCA provide for a Notification and Rules for pre-institution mediation. This Notification and Rules have to be made by Central Government and the same have been made and they kicked in on and from 03.07.2018. Thereafter, several High Courts t