In interim applications in a commercial suit filed before the Delhi High Court against unknown websites for hosting, streaming, and/or making available for viewing and downloading the plaintiff’s film ‘Drishyam: The Conclusion’, a Single Judge Bench of Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav granted an ad interim ex parte injunction in favour of the plaintiff.
It was submitted that the defendants’ websites had previously indulged in rampant piracy and infringement of the plaintiff’s exclusive copyrighted content such as the film ‘Jolly LLB 3’ along with other third-party copyrighted content. It was contended that in view of the business model and the modus operandi, the plaintiff had reasonable and imminent apprehension that the Film, which is to be released on 02-10-2026 would be streamed/made available on the defendant websites and that they would be watched by the people in Delhi, which would ultimately cause loss to the plaintiff.
The Court was satisfied that the plaintiff had made out a case for grant of ad interim ex parte injunction and stated that the nature of injury that the plaintiff was likely to suffer would not be remedied by money. It was noted that the balance of convenience and prima facie case also lay in favour of the plaintiff.
Hence, the Court restrained defendants 1 to 9 or any person on their behalf from communicating, hosting, streaming, and/or making available for viewing and downloading the plaintiff’s film without authorization, on their websites or other platforms, through the internet in any manner. Defendants 12-29 were directed to immediately suspend the use, block, or deactivate the domain name of the defendants concerned within 72 hours. Further, the Court directed the government officials to ensure that the present order is fully adhered to and granted liberty to the plaintiff to inform the Domain Name Registrar Internet Service Providers and the government department concerned for action to be taken against any website or person who was not a party to the present suit, but was involved in piracy of the film.
