Delhi High Court provides reprieve to Just Dial

Delhi High Court provides reprieve to Just Dial

The matter will be heard again on August 25    

The Delhi High Court has granted ad-interim relief to search engine Just Dial in a suit against a company involved in alleged data theft, trademark and copyright infringement.

The bench comprising Justice Pratibha M Singh held, "If the relief sought is not granted, an irreparable loss would be caused as it would not only jeopardize the plaintiff's rights but also the rights of its various clients, customers and the general public, who might make payments to avail its services."

Representing the search engine company, Senior Counsel Dayan Krishnan informed the court that a few months ago, its client had realized that the defendant company Local Search Solutions Private Limited was operating its website by copying large volumes of data from the website of Just Dial. It had 'verbatim lifted' thousands of its listings, source data code, corporate numbers and other proprietary data.

He submitted various illustrations of the data lifted by the defendant. It was demonstrated by the use of the 'JD logo', identical source codes, dummy listings, phone numbers, and complete customer reviews from Just Dial's website.

Just Dial contended that the defendant had collected money through credit cards without issuing the invoices. Posing as a customer, it made a trap transaction on the website and discovered that the credit card used by it was put on auto-debit mode. It resulted in the amount being deducted from the account in January 2022 without any order being placed.

Just Dial pointed out that in this manner a large sum of money might have been taken out from gullible customers.

Justice Singh agreed that many innocent people could have been duped by the defendants, who had continued to operate their website.

She ruled, "In the interest of the general public, the plaintiff has made out a prima facie case for grant of an ex-parte ad-interim injunction. The balance of convenience lies in the favor of the plaintiff."

The defendants were restrained by the court from providing or advertising any goods or services on their website or utilizing the data belonging to Just Dial till the next date of hearing. They were also restrained from collecting any payments.

The court also ordered the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and the Department of Telecommunications to issue instructions to all the ISps to block the defendant's website and suspend its services.

While Just Dial was also represented by Advocates Aditya Gupta, Abhilasha Nautiyal, Sauhard Alung, S Seth and Bandan Karkidholy, Advocate Kirtiman Singh appeared for the Government of India and the Union ministries were advised by Advocate Kunjala Bhardwaj.