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IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT MADRAS

RESERVED ON

: 18.04.2023

PRONOUNCED ON

:15.06.2023

CORAM:

THE HONOURABLE MR.JUSTICE S.SOUNTHAR

C.S.No.914 of 2010

Aarur Tamilnadan

... Applicant/Plaintiff

vs

1.S.Sankar

2.Sun TV Network Limited,

Rep. By its Directors,

Murasoli Maran Towers,

73, MRC Nagar Main Road,

M.R.C. Nagar Chennai – 600 028.

(Amended as per order dated 28.09.2021

in Application No.3227 of 2021)

... Defendants/Respondents

Prayer: Civil Suit is filed under Order VII Rule 1 CPC r/w Order IV Rule 1 of

the Original Side Rules, 1956, r/w Sections 55 and 62 of the Copyrights Act,

praying to,

(a) Declaration that the plaintiff is the author and first owner of the

copy right of the story “Enthiran” which was stolen/pirated from the original

story “Jugiba” written and got published in April 1996;

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(b) Declaring that the film “Enthiran” is the infringing copy of the

plaintiff's story “Jugiba”;

(c) Order directing the defendants to pay a sum of Rs.1,00,00,000/- to

the plaintiff, as damages;

(d) Permanent injunction restraining the defendants, their men, agents,

successors in business, legal representatives, assigns or any person claiming

through them from distributing, screening and exhibiting the infringing copy

namely the “Enthiran” film in any cinema hall, electronic media, open air

theatre, auditorium in any exhibiting device;

(e) A Preliminary decree in favour of the plaintiff directing the

defendants to render account of the profit made by the infringing copy namely

“Enthiran” to the plaintiff and a final decree in favour of the plaintiff for the

amount of profits thus found to have been made by the defendants;

(f) Pass such other order or orders as this Court may deem fit in the

circumstances of the case.

For Plaintiff

: Mr.G.Vairava Subramanian

for M/s.P.T.Perumal

For Respondents

: Mr.Arun C.Mohan

for M/s.D.Saikumaran for D1

Mr.AL.Somayaji (Sr. Advocate)

for M/s.Sneha for D2

M/s.B.K.Girish Neelakandan for D3

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J U D G M E N T

The suit is filed by the plaintiff seeking a declaration that he is the first

owner of the copyright of the story “Enthiran” which was stolen/pirated from

the original story “Jugiba” written and got published in April 1996. The

plaintiff also sought for further declaration that the film "Enthiran" is the

infringing copy of the plaintiff story "Jugiba" and for a consequential

injunction restraining the defendants from distributing, screening and

exhibiting, infringing copy namely the feature film "Enthiran". The plaintiff

also prayed for direction to the defendants to pay a sum of Rs.1,00,00,000/-

towards damages. He also sought for preliminary decree directing the

defendants to render true account of the profit earned by them by infringing

the copyright of the plaintiff and for a final decree in favour of plaintiff for the

amount of profits thus found to have been earned by the defendants.

2. Plaint Averments

According to the plaintiff, he is a "Prolific" Tamil writer, who claimed

that the plaintiff had written a story about Humanoid Robo “Jugiba” and the

same was first published in a Tamil monthly Magazine "Iniya Udayam"

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during April 1996. The Thumb Nail sketch of the story is as follows:

“A Scientist Robin spends a decade in the computer lab to create a

super power Robot and succeeds. He names it as “Jugiba”. The Robot has

the capacity to store the facts from Adam and Eve to latest Nuclear weapons.

It can move its joints in any directions. It can perceive situations and act

accordingly. It resembles a man and it is capable of all human activities

except pro-creation. The scientist Robin was ready to present his rare

scientific creation to the conference next day. Elated by his own achievement,

Robin calls his love Josephin to