PRATHIBA MANINDER SINGH, J.
1. This hearing has been done through hybrid mode.
2. The present batch of matters relate to domain names being registered by unknown third parties infringing trade mark rights of various brand owners and implementation of Court orders by the Domain Name Registrars (‘DNR’s). In response to the challenges arising out of unauthorised registrations, from time to time, various directions have been passed by this Court in respect of blocking, locking and suspending of the infringing domain names, and implementation of Court orders by various DNRs which may or may not be located in India.
3. Ld. Counsels on behalf of the Plaintiffs have commenced their submissions. Mr. Siddharth Chopra, ld. Counsel has appeared in CS (COMM)s 26/2022, 113/2023, 233/2022, 275/2022, 364/2022, 399/2021 and 475/2022. He has also handed over written submissions and judgments.
4. Mr. Anirudh Bakhru, ld. Counsel appearing in CS(COMM)135/2022 has also commenced his arguments.
5. Ms. Jagriti, ld. Counsel appearing for the Reserve Bank of India (‘RBI’) has handed over an affidavit of the RBI dated 2nd July, 2024. As per the said affidavit, which has been deposed by one Ms. Geeta, Assistant General Manager in the Department of Supervision with the RBI, the verification of the beneficiary’s name called the beneficiary’s name lookup facility as captured in the order dated 26th May, 2023 has now been implemented in respect of member participants of the immediate payment service. As per the affidavit, banks would be advised by December 2024, to extend the said facility for IFSC or mobile number and MMID (including RTGS and NEFT). The relevant portions of the affidavit are set out below:
“3. In this regard, it is submitted that the beneficiary's name lookup facility has been made available to banks who are member participants of Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) which is a real time fast payment system operated by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). The remitter enters the Account number and IFSC (Indian Financial System Code) or Mobile Number and MMID (Mobile Money Identifier) of the beneficiary and the name of the beneficiary's account is made available to the remitter.
4. It is submitted that as on June 10, 2024, total No. of 178 banks have completed testing and have been onboarded on this service provided by IMPS. In the month of May 2024, a total of 148 banks have put in about 23 Lakh requests.
5. The facility can also be used with other payment systems that use the same combination of account number and IFSC or Mobile number and MMID (which includes RTGS and NEFT). The banks will be advised by end December 2024 to extend the same beneficiary name lookup facility to their customers using RTGS and NEFT payment systems.”
6. The said affidavit is taken on record. Let the RBI’s counsel ensure that the affidavit is brought on record.
7. In addition, ld. Counsel submits that in terms of the previous order dated 15th April, 2024 in respect of circulation of Standard Operating Procedures (‘SOP’) for cooperation with the law enforcement agencies, the affidavit states that the Indian Bank Association (‘IBA’) has finalized an updated SOP in consultation with Central Intelligence Economic Bureau (‘CEIB’) and the same has been circulated vide email dated 3rd June, 2024. The copy of the said email along with the SOP has been attached to this affidavit. A copy of this affidavit be provided to Ms. Hethu Arora Sethi, ld. ASC who can circulate within the Delhi Police and any other law enforcement agencies who may need cooperation from various banks.
8. List all the matters for further hearing on 23rd August, 2024 at 2:30 p.m.
9. List CS(COMM) 350/2020, CS(COMM) 176/2021, CS(COMM) 255/2020, CS(COMM) 324/2020 and CS(COMM) 471/2020 on 9th August, 2024 and 23rd August, 2024 at 2:30 p.m. for consideration of certain applications.