Ministry complains to Delhi Police on selling of non-price edition of Economic Survey, case filed

New Delhi: The Economic and Offences wing (EOW) of Delhi Police has started their probe on a complaint of the Ministry of Finance related to the copyright act. Police said that copies of Economic Survey 2018-19 which was non-price edition being sold in a market of Rs 800 per copy.

Additional Commissioner of Police (EOW) OP Mishra told Millennium Post that they have registered a case and further investigation is going on. The case was registered on the complaint of the Department of Economic Affairs in the Ministry of Finance. The complainant (senior official from Ministry) in the case told police that they received an email on August in which it was stated that non-price edition of Economic Survey 2018-19 is available for sale at a shop in Ber Sarai area at the cost of Rs 800. The copies were still available at the shop.

The complainant further told police that copyright of Economic Survey 2018-19 lies with the Government of India which was printed on the back cover of Economic Survey. "As such, availability of a non-price edition of the book for sale is a gross infringement of the copyright of Economic Survey 2018-19," the complainant told the police. A case under section 63 of the copyright act was registered at EOW police station. Additional CP further said that no arrest was made in the case.

As per the Delhi Police data accessed by Millennium Post, in the year 2017 as many as 151 cases under Copyright Act cases were reported, while last year more than 100 cases were registered in different districts to Delhi Police.

In the current year up to October, 123 cases were registered. In March this year, Delhi Police arrested a man for printing fake NCERT books from East Delhi's Ghazipur area. The accused used to procure NCERT watermark paper from Chawri Bazar and prepared a complete set of books and distributed them to different States in North and South India.