- (1.) Leave granted.
(2.) The respondent herein, Lt. General Depinder Singh (Retd.), entered into a Publication Agreement with Dattatreya Prakashan in September, 1991, for publication of his book titled "IPKF in Sri Lanka" regarding his experiences while leading the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka. Pursuant to the said Agreement, the first edition of the book was published in 1991. In paragraph 2 of the said Agreement, whereby the respondent assigned his exclusive rights for production and publication of the book to Dattatreya Prakashan, it was indicated as follows: "2. The AUTHOR(S) hereby assigned to the PUBLISHERS, during the legal terms of copyright including any renewals thereof, the exclusive rights to produce and publish the WORK in a volume form in any part of the world in the original language in which it is written as also to license its translation in any other languages and publication of any other editions, but the copyright in the WORK shall remain vested in the AUTHOR(S). The AUTHOR (S) shall not during the continuance of this Agreement publish or cause to be published in any part of the world any copy of the WORK or any translation thereof save as herein provided."
(3.) The business interest in Dattatreya Prakashan was acquired by the appellant who was carrying on business in the name and style of "Trishul Publications", which published the second edition of the book in May, 1992. From the materials on record it appears that, although, initially there was a demand for the book, such demand decreased and the appellant was, thereafter, reluctant to invest money in printing further editions of the book. In fact, in response to the respondent's query regarding publication of a further edition the appellant on 11.11.1991 wrote to the respondent and expressed his unwillingness to publish any further edition of the book. He also informed the respondent on 1.6.1993 that the book was a dead stock and it had to be pushed at a lower price. On 28.10.1997, the appellant again wrote to the respondents stating that he had conducted a market survey and the demand of the book did not warrant any reprint. He also advised the respondent to authorize one Bharat Verma to publish the book. As the said letter is relevant to a decision in this case, the contents thereof are reproduced hereinbelow: "With reference to our last tele- conversation, I have carried out a thorough market survey and come to the conclusion that there is no large enough demand for the book warranting a special reprint. I have tried to check up from Lancers but drawn a blank. Bharat Verma is a good businessman and has perhaps received some demand from his foreign contacts of which his staff are not aware. He will do a good job for the Book and you may kindly authorize him to publish. No problem. I have, however, a suggestion. You may reshape the book - a new book titled "Failure of IPKF in Srilanka" and draw lessons from it for posterity.........";