Delhi HC directs suspension of website claiming to offer free prasad from Ram Mandir ‘Pran Pratishtha’ ceremony

The high court, in its prima facie opinion, observed that the marks of defendants 1 and 2, Khadi organic, are deceptively similar to the plaintiff’s Khadi mark. It thereafter restrained the owners of the website from “manufacturing, selling, exporting, advertising” any goods/services under the marks Khadi Organic which is “identical or deceptively similar to Plaintiff’s registered KHADI marks” amounting to infringement of the commission’s marks, till the next date of hearing.

“Defendant No. 3 shall suspend the operation of the domain name/website ‘www.khadiorganic.com’ registered by them and shall also maintain status quo with regards to the ownership of the said domain name. Defendants No. 1 and 2 shall take down their social media pages mentioned in paragraph No. 25 of the application and/or any other pages active on social media platforms that use any mark identical or deceptively similar to Plaintiff’s registered KHADI marks,” Justice Narula directed.

The Khadi and Village Industries Commission had moved the high court in a trademark infringement lawsuit claiming that they had adopted the trademark “KHADI” in 1956 and have been continuously using the same for their products including soaps, food products, grocery items etc, ever since. These products are sold through retail outlets, exhibitions, their website and other third-party e-commerce websites. It also has a considerable social media presence and operates a mobile application by the name of “KHADI INDIA”, the plaintiff said.

The commission claimed that this month they came across a reel/ video posted on Instagram advertising a website ‘www.khadiorganic.com’ for the delivery of free prasad from the ‘Pran Pratishtha’ ceremony at the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh. As per the information hosted on the homepage of the aforesaid website, members of the public who are desirous of obtaining the “Ram Mandir Prasad” for free, could place their orders by filling up a form provided on the website. For such delivery, a charge of Rs 51 is sought from Indian customers, and USD 11 from foreign customers, it argued.

The commission claimed that it had learnt that Defendant No. 1, Ashish Singh, had established the brand “KHADI ORGANIC” which is a part of the Defendant No. 2 company, M/s DrillMaps India Private Limited.

The high court issued a summons on the commission’s lawsuit as well as a notice in its application for interim relief and listed the matter for hearing on May 27.