PATNA, India, Oct. 3 -- Patna High Court issued the following judgment on Sept. 3:

The instant civil miscellaneous petition has been filed by the petitioners seeking following reliefs :

"(i) To issue an appropriate order or direction for quashing and setting aside the order dated 07.09.2019 passed by the Learned Additional District Judge-XVI, Patna upon the application filed by the respondent/plaintiff under Order XXXIX Rule 2A of the Code of Civil Procedure, whereby and where under the Learned Additional District Judge-XVI, Patna, has ordered contempt proceedings to be initiated against the petitioners herein, on wholly erroneous grounds without looking into the facts and the circumstances of the case and without considering the materials available on the record.

(ii) To grant/award any other relief or reliefs which the petitioner may be found entitled to in the facts and circumstances of the case".

2. Shorn of unnecessary details, the facts leading to institution of the present civil miscellaneous petition are that the plaintiffs/respondents 1st set filed a suit against the defendants/petitioners and respondent no.3/respondent 2nd set bearing Title Suit No.5031/2014 on 28.08.2014 seeking permanent and mandatory injunction, damages for infringement of trademark, passing off and rendition of accounts. For convenience, the petitioners and the respondents would be referred by their original status hereinafter.

3. The plaintiff no.1 is a limited company duly registered under the Companies Act, 1956 and is the owner of the brand 'HERO' for manufacturer and marketing of the bicycle in the trade name of 'HERO CYCLES LIMITED'. The plaintiff no. 2 and the defendant no. 3 come from a business family of 'Munjal Brothers', who came to Amritsar from Pakistan in the year 1944 and they used to supply components to the local bicycle business and in 1947, the 'Munjal Brothers' moved to Ludhiana where they expanded their business. By the year 1956, the 'Munjal Brothers' were well entrenched in the business of manufacturing key components of bicycles and started assembling the entire bicycle at their manufacturing plant at Ludhiana under the trade name of 'HERO CYCLES LIMITED'. The four 'Munjal Brothers' were Brij Mohan Lal Munjal, Dayanand Munjal, Satyanand Munjal and Om Prakash Munjal, the plaintiff no.2. The Hero Group diversified into newer segments of trade and commerce and with an intention to bifurcating the vast conglomerate of companies and businesses amongst each of the four Munjal families in an amicable manner, a Family Settlement Agreement (hereinafter referred to as the 'FSA') dated 20.05.2010 was entered into amongst the four branches naming the Group in following manner :

The rest of the document can be viewed at https://patnahighcourt.gov.in/viewjudgment/NDQjMTcxMSMyMDE5IzEjTg==-WcZPcf94NQo=

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