"Don't want any receiver to travel, visit other locations:" Bombay High Court defers appointment of court receiver in view of COVID-19

The Bombay High Court on Monday refused to appoint of a court receiver for the time being in view of the COVID-19 situation in Maharashtra and consequent restrictions on movement and curfews in place in the State. .Single-judge Justice Gautam Patel deemed it fit to defer the appointment of receiver because of the prevailing public health emergency. "I do not want any individual, whether special receiver or court receiver, to be required to travel or visit other locations," Justice Patel said. .This direction was made while hearing an interim relief application filed by Sun Pharma Laboratories Ltd. a pharmaceutical company against Nova Indus Pharmaceuticals seeking an order of injunction from using the a registered mark and appointment of court receiver to confiscate goods..Justice Patel said that there are restrictions on the movement and even curfews in place in many parts of the country, which ought to be respected. .He, however, clarified at the end of the order that he was not rejecting the prayer for appointment of receiver, but would only consider the same at a later stage..Sun Pharma was granted liberty to move the application for Receiver's appointment whenever the situation with respect to movement of people improves and restrictions are eased..With regard to interim relief for injunction, the case put up by Sun Pharma was that Nova Indus's pharmaceutical preparation PANZOCID, was similar to the popular mark of PANTOCID adopted by Sun Pharma. The mark PANTOCID was registered on a proposed to be used basis but Sun Pharma had vigilantly protected its mark against the other users..Justice Patel compared the two marks and found that structurally and visually the two are indistinguishable and even phonetically the similarity is extreme. It is not only confusing but is also deceptive, he concluded. .Hence, he held that a prima facie case was made out as the balance of convenience lies the favour of Sun Pharma. "The Plaintiffs product has been in the market for a long time and its brand cannot be allowed to be compromised in this fashion" Justice Patel said, adding that this ad-interim relief will continue till further orders. .He granted liberty to Nova Indus to apply for variation or modification of order after giving at least 7 working days of notice to the advocate of the plaintiff..Advocates Hiren Kamod, Gautam Panchal, Pratiksha Thakur instructed by Gautam & CO. appeared for Sun Pharma. [Read Order]