Shashank Shekhar Mishra v. Ajay Gupta
2011 (48) PTC 156
In the Delhi High Court
CS(OS) 1144/2011
Before Justice V. K. Jain
Decided on September 05, 2011

Relevancy of the case: Awarding damages for stealing laptop containing confidential information

Statutes & Provisions Involved
• The Information Technology Act, 2000 (Section 43)
• The Indian Copyright Act, 1957 (Section 2, 13, 14, 17)

Relevant Facts of the Case
• The plaintiff, a student of Sri Ram Murti Smarak Institute of Technology, Barielly, is a tech savvy professional. On 9th November, 2010, the plaintiff purchased a laptop for a consideration of Rs. 34,100/- for web designing and various technology related activities. He was storing various user IDs, passwords, for creating, storing and retaining the original web designing templates, designs, styles and confidential financial information, including his mother’s bank account details and his cousin brother’s credit card information.

•The plaintiff claims to have various accounts on e-commerce website www.algulfnet.biz. He accumulated thousands of points by participating in surveys and generated 212 e-Pins, whose value is allegedly Rs. 7,63,200/-.

• On 25th April 2011, the defendant barged into his room with two anti-social elements and snatched his laptop which contained his personal and sensitive information.

Opinion of the Bench
• The right to privacy is an individual’s valuable right and is implicit in Article 21, the right to life and liberty guaranteed by the Indian Constitution. The defendant invaded the plaintiff’s privacy, snatching the laptop containing the plaintiff’s private information above-referred private information, thereby gaining access.

• The bench recognised that Section 43 of the ITA, 2000, providing a penalty for damaging a computer or computer system, has limitations. Also, it was held that the civil court has the right to award damages, despite Section 61 of the Act requiring cases to be heard by the Cyber Appellate Tribunal.

Final Decision
• The single bench passed a decree for permanent injunction restraining the defendant from infringing the copyright of the plaintiff in the “literary works”, as defined in Sec 2(o) of the Copyright Act.
• The bench passed a decree for recovery of Lenovo laptop of the plaintiff or in the alternative for recovery of Rs. 34,100/-.

•The bench passed a decree for damages amounting to Rs. 10 lakhs in the plaintiff’s favour, with entitlement to pendent lite, future damages @ 6% p.a. on the Rs. 10 lakhs and proportionate suit costs.

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