The Delhi High Court on Friday restored the suit filed against the sale of photocopies of textbooks, reported PTI. The bench set aside an earlier verdict that had dismissed a plea filed by a group of international publishers, including Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press, against a shop located at the Delhi University campus.
“The appeal is disposed of declaring the law as above [in the verdict] and setting aside the impugned judgment and decree holding that no triable issue on fact arises,” said the bench of justices Pradeep Nandrajog and Yogesh Khanna. The court asked the shop, Rameshwari Photocopy Services, to maintain a record of course packs photocopied by it and supplied to students. The bench also said the owner must submit the record every six months. The court will hear the case next on January 4, 2017.
On September 16, the Delhi High Court had dismissed the plea filed by the publisher, saying, “Copyright is not a divine right”. The court had also lifted a ban imposed on a bookseller from selling the material. The court had observed that photocopying was protected in the Copyright Act through an exception for educational purposes, and ruled that there was no need for a trial in the matter.
In 2012, the group of publishers had moved court against the sale of certain textbooks by the shop. The defendant had argued that if students are free to make photocopies of textbooks at libraries, why can they not have access to books reproduced entirely. However, the court had then ruled in favour of the petitioners and directed a stay order on the sale of such books at the shop.
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