The Bombay high court has held that offences of infringement of copyright under the Copyright Act and of falsely applying any trademark under the Trade Marks Act were non-bailable offences as the punishment attracted was up to three years and could be exactly three years.
Justice Sarang Kotwal had raised a legal question on whether the offences punishable with up to three years’ imprisonment were bailable or not. The high court said that offences under section 63 of the Copyright Act (infringement of copyright) and section 103 of the Trade Marks Act (false application of trademark), which were not in the Indian Penal Code (IPC) but attracted up to three years’ imprisonment, were non-bailable.
Advocate Mandar Soman, who appeared for a man seeking protection against arrest, argued that a magistrate had granted a co-accused bail as section 418 of IPC (cheating with knowledge of wrongful loss to person he ought to protect), which attracted up to three years in jail, was bailable.