INDIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Pravin Anand, Achuthan Sreekumar and Rohil Bansal, Anand and Anand
• 180 days – closing of arguments. • 90 days – judgment.
the law applicable to them, gives the plaintiff the right to relief against the defendant. Every fact that is necessary for the plaintiff to prove the claims made by them against the defendant and to enable the plaintiff to obtain a final decree should be set out in clear terms. Even in a criminal action involving trade secrets, the complaint should be concise, and should contain the basic facts leading to the dispute and not provisions of law, precedents, etc. Finally, the standard of proof in a civil case is preponderance of probability, while in a criminal case it is beyond reasonable doubt. In Amica Financial Technologies Pvt Ltd v Hip Bar Pvt Ltd and Others, the Madras High Court held that, for an applicant to ask for protection of its trade secrets, it must prima facie estab - lish through some material that such information was communicated to the person against whom protection is sought. Moreover, the applicant will also have to prima facie establish that the information in question is confidential in nature. Further, the applicant must also show that the confidential information is under threat of being used without authorisation by the respondent for wrongful gains. 5.6 Seizure Mechanisms Under Order 26, a Civil Court has the power to appoint commissioners to: • seize and take into custody incriminating evidence and material; • inspect/investigate; • examine accounts; and • conduct scientific investigation, etc. In a criminal case, summons to produce, search - es and seizures, etc, are allowed as per Sections
A criminal case concerning theft of trade secrets may also contain ingredients of criminal breach of trust, cheating, causing wrongful gain/loss and using IT resources for cheating, and can be filed before the police or the magistrate within whose jurisdiction the alleged illegal act wholly or partly took place, or where the accused per - son is located. 5.5 Initial Pleading Standards The following are the main ingredients of a trade secrets claim: • who the claimant is; • the claimant’s ownership of the confidential information; • evidence to show that the information is confidential/a trade secret; • who the defendant is; • evidence of misappropriation; and • evidence of damage costs. In a civil action, Order VI Rule 2 stipulates that every pleading shall contain a concise statement of the material facts on which the party relies for their claim or defence. The evidence can be attached separately. Also, a civil action may be filed based on infor - mation and belief supported by an affidavit. However, after initiation of the proceeding and discovery, if no evidence is gathered in support of the plaintiff’s claim, the suit may be dismissed for want of cause of action against the defend - ants. In Church of Christ v Ponniamman; AIR 2012 SC 3912, the Supreme Court held that cause of action is a bundle of facts which, taken with
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