High Court sends Australian firm notice by email on piracy case

[Len]

With the ever increasing use of electronic media including social networks to serve court notices, the Gujarat high court on Tuesday ordered its registry to issue notice to an Australian company through email.

On Justice P P Bhatt’s order, the HC registry dashed off an email to Sydney-based Wilcom International Pty Ltd. The court has posted a further hearing for July 13, said the petitioner’s advocate, Chetan Pandya.

The Supreme Court had in 2014 asked courts to use electronic media more to serve notices and speed up proceedings. Courts recently began serving notices by email and platforms such as WhatsApp. The use electronic service of court notices has been limited to matrimonial and commercial matters.

In this case, the Australian company had through its authorized agents filed an FIR against Surat-based Maa Bhagwati Creation for software piracy. In 2013, two persons including the Surat firm’s manager, Vivek Nathani, were booked for violation of the Copyrights Act, for using a Wilcon-developed software for embroidery.

The FIR was filed in 2013 with Udhna police station in Surat. The next month, the Surat firm bought a license to use the software from the Australian company. The dispute was then settled. The Australian company informed Udhna police that it did not want to pursue criminal prosecution against the local firm.

Pandya said, “The Australian company informed police that there was no need for criminal prosecution, but police were helpless because they do not have discretion to stop criminal proceedings. Police filed a chargesheet against my client.”

Five years after criminal proceedings were initiated before a magisterial court in Surat, Nathani approached the high court requesting it to quash the FIR on the basis of the settlement between the two companies. He also requested the HC to permit him to serve notice to the Australian company through email, so proceedings could be expedited.