Eastern Book Company & Ors vs D.B. Modak & Anr

The Supreme Court ruled that the appellants, Eastern Book Company and EBC Publishing Pvt. Ltd., hold copyright over their law report 'Supreme Court Cases' (SCC) under Section 13 and Section 14 of the Copyright Act, 1957, affirming that their compilation and presentation of judgments constitute an original literary work. The Court held that unauthorized reproduction of SCC by the respondent constitutes copyright infringement as defined under Section 51 of the Act. The judgment emphasized the need for protection of intellectual property rights in the publishing industry, particularly for legal publications.