Delhi High Court: A suit was filed by Delhi Public School Society (plaintiff) seeking permanent injunction restraining misuse of the plaintiff’s name ‘DELHI PUBLIC SCHOOL’, mark ‘DPS’ along with their logos (collectively known as DPS Marks). Prathiba M Singh, J., held that the defendant school shall not use the mark ‘DPS’, logo, and name or any of the trademarks of the plaintiff after the current academic year that is ending on 31-03-2024.
The suit was filed against Aviral Education Welfare and Cultural Society (`AEWCS’) (defendant 1) which is running the Delhi Public School in Sahibabad, Ghaziabad Uttar Pradesh (defendant 2). The case of the Plaintiff is that the first school was established in 1949 under the name Delhi Public School. The Plaintiff’s Delhi Public School, R.K. Puram was established in 1972 and the Plaintiff has more than 200 affiliated schools across the country. There are 10 schools that have been established outside India by the Plaintiff.
The Plaintiff claims enormous goodwill and reputation in the mark and the name and rights in all the DPS marks. The case of the plaintiff is that defendant 1 had approached the plaintiff for a joint venture agreement to run a school under the name and style Delhi Public School Sahibabad in Ghaziabad- 201102, Uttar Pradesh. The agreement was entered into on 10-10-2016 as per which the defendants were permitted to use the trademarks of the plaintiff. At the time of entering into the agreement a sum of Rs.25,00,000 was paid as a signing fee, by defendant 1 to the Plaintiff. For various reasons, the said agreement was terminated on 24-09-2018. Despite the said termination, the defendants continued to run and operate the school which then led to the filing of the present suit.
The Court noted that the defendants have already been restrained from using the DPS marks and the said orders were upheld in appeal. Thus, there can be no justification for continuing the use of the DPS name and the mark as well as the logos. The case being one relating to education, the career of hundreds of children would be in jeopardy if allegations made by the Plaintiff are to be gone into and contempt action is initiated.
The Court further noted that it appears that the defendants need time to change the name of the school and in any case, the students belonging to Class 10 and 12 have already submitted their candidature to the CBSE. If the certificates and the marksheets for the students of Class 10th and 12th are not issued in the name currently in which applications have been submitted to CBSE, the future of these students could be jeopardised. On the other hand, there is also no doubt that prima facie the defendants are in contempt of the injunction order dated 10-03-2023.
The Court concluded that since the defendants are running a school where more than 500 students are currently studying, the Court is taking a compassionate view of the matter in order to ensure that the careers of the children are not put to any harm. Therefore, contempt action must not be initiated subject to the ensuing condition. The suit itself can be brought to quietus by putting in place an arrangement which is in the overall interest of the students of the school, at the same time suitably compensating the plaintiff.
Thus, the Court held that the defendant School can use the DPS marks/names including ‘DELHI PUBLIC SCHOOL’, ‘DPS’ as also the logos only in respect of the students who are already admitted for the academic year 2023-2024, for the academic year ending on 31-03-2024 and any fresh admissions in the Defendant School for the academic year 2024-2025 shall be under a new name.
The Court further held that the certificates for the current students who are currently undergoing Class 10 and Class 12 as also other children, for the academic year 2023-2024, shall be issued under the existing name of the defendants and since, no amount has been paid by the Defendants after the initial amount, a further sum of Rs.20,00,000 plus GST shall be paid by the Defendants by 31-12-2023 to the plaintiff.
[Delhi Public School Society v Aviral Education Welfare and Cultural Society, 2023 SCC OnLine Del 6596, decided on 16-10-2023]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
Mr. Puneet Mittal, Sr Advocate with Mr. Rupendra Pratap Singh and Ms. Sakshi Mendiratta, Advocates for plaintiff
Mr. Kamal Gupta, Mr. Sparsh Aggarwal and Mr. Manish Vashist, Advocates for Aviral Education Welfare And Cultural Society
