'Jurisdiction Issue': High Court On YouTuber Mohak Mangal's Plea To Transfer ANI's Copyright & Trademark Infringement Suit From Delhi Court

YouTuber Mohak Mangal on Thursday moved the Delhi High Court seeking transfer of the copyright and trademark infringement suit filed by Asian News International (ANI) against him before city's Patiala House Court to the High Court.

Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani heard the matter briefly and questioned if the transfer plea could even be heard by him, because as per the Commercial Courts Act, the matter has to be heard by a division bench.

This was after Advocate Siddhant Kumar appearing for ANI referred to Section 15(5) of Commercial Courts Act and said that the petition should be filed before the commercial appellate division of the High Court and is not maintainable before the single bench.

Kumar said that ANI has only impugned the allegedly defamatory video in its suit before the High Court whereas the alleged copyright infringement is impugned before the patiala house court.

Advocate Nakul Gandhi appearing for Mangal submitted that the trademarks which ANI alleges to have been infringed before the High Court are the same which have been impugned before the patiala house court.

Kumar highlighted that how the cause of action in both the suits are different and said that ANI has not impugned before the district court what was impugned before the High Court.

Kumar then submitted that as per Section 15 of the Commercial Courts Act, the power to transfer the suit lies with the commercial appellate division of the High Court.

To this, Justice Bhambhani responded: “Jurisdiction issue. Can I even entertain this?…. You (Mangal) are asking that the Patiala house suit be brought here but you've to go before a DB.”

Gandhi then said that he will place on record relevant decisions or orders on the issue to contend that the transfer plea is maintainable.

Accordingly, the Court renotified the matter on July 16.

ANI had filed a defamation, disparagement and infringement suit before the Delhi High Court against Mangal and others over the YouTube video titled “Dear ANI”.

The suit also named comedian Kunal Kamra, AltNews co-founder Mohammed Zubair and unknown entities (john does) as defendants for sharing Mangal's video on their X Corp (formerly Twitter) handles.

On May 29, Mangal agreed to take down certain portions from his YouTube video which were offending as per the news agency.

ANI then filed a suit before the district court on June 02 impugning 10 videos posted by Mangal, alleging copyright and trademark infringement.

In his transfer plea, Mangal has claimed that six out of the ten videos impugned before the patiala house court are same videos that were already alleged to constitute copyright infringement before the High Court.

Title: MOHAK MANGAL v. ANI MEDIA PVT. LTD. AND ANR