The Plaintiffs alleged Defendants for making available their books for sale at low prices in the countries for which the books were not meant for like USA, UK and others. Hence, the same amounted to infringement of their copyright under Section 51 of the Copyright Act, 1957. The Hon’ble Delhi High Court while ruling in favor of the Plaintiffs, denied to recognize the principle of international exhaustion of copyright in India and noted that there was no express provision for international exhaustion is absent under the Indian law, hence it would be appropriate to confine the applicability of the same to regional exhaustion.
In view of the dichotomous opinion by Courts on the subject and prevalent law under Section 14 (ii) of the Copyright Act, 1957, the law relating to doctrine of first sale of copyright in India appears to be still elusive and obscure.
Source: Barandbench
