The Delhi High Court has directed Triveni Interchem Pvt. Ltd. to pay Rs 2 crore as damages to pharma giant Pfizer Inc. for committing "wilful" and "contumacious" contempt of court by disobeying its order.

The Bench of Justice C. Hari Shankar observed, "Accordingly, in the interest of justice, the Court deems it appropriate to dispose of this application by directing Kamlesh Singh, the director of Defendants 1 and 2 to pay, to the plaintiff, an amount of ₹ 2,00,00,000/- within a period of two weeks from today, failing which he shall be taken into custody and detained in a civil prison for a period of two weeks at Tihar Jail, Delhi."

The court said if the director of the firm, Triveni Interchem Pvt Ltd, fails to pay the amount in two weeks, he shall be taken into custody and detained in a civil prison for two weeks at Tihar jail here.

Advocate Pravin Anand appeared for Pfizer while Advocate Sandeep Sharma appeared for the Respondent.

The court, in an interim order, had restrained the firm from making, selling, distributing, advertising, exporting or importing or dealing with any product having compound Palbociclib' or any pharmaceutically acceptable salt as it would infringe the patent of plaintiff Pfizer.

As the firm was found continuing to sell Palbociclib, the court held the defendants guilty of wilful disobedience of its order and committing contempt of court.

"In these circumstances, as the defendants were completely unwilling to acknowledge the fact that it was selling Palbociclib, the court was constrained to hold the defendants guilty of wilful and contumacious disobedience of its orders and, therefore, found the defendants guilty of having committed contempt of this court..' the Court held.

The judge further said, "In view of the aforesaid, I am of the opinion that, as the defendant has clearly committed wilful and contumacious contempt of this court , the defendant through Kamlesh Singh (director), he has rendered himself liable to punishment."

In its October 2021 interim order, the high court directed Triveni to remove all the listings from various places. However, since the instances of the sale of Palbociclib continued, Pfizer filed a contempt petition before the court.

Advocates appearing for Pfizer contended that Triveni Interchem Private Limited and Triveni Chemicals were found advertising and offering "for sale" generic Palbociclib in active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) form on their websites and IndiaMART (e-commerce platform), without any permission or authorisation from Pfizer.

Pfizer contended that Triveni entities were merely altering the packaging in which Palbociclib was being sold by it and continued to indulge in the sale of the compound on its website as well as on a third-party website and sought that the director be punished for contempt.

The firm filed an affidavit tendering an apology, however, the court said it was not acceptable as it was coming from a person who was completely unwilling to disclose the exact quantity of Palbociclib which Triveni dealt with.

"It is impossible for this court to believe that the defendant continued to show Palbociclib as a product in which it was dealing, on its own website as well as on third party websites, and never purchased or sold any Palbociclib whatsoever. If the present affidavit is to be believed, even in the absence of any stock of Palbociclib with it, the defendant was advertising Palbociclib for sale on the internet. This is a clearly unacceptable position and is contrary to basic principles of trade," the court said.

The court also held, "Triveni has absolutely no regard for the truth and it appeared that, with stark impunity, it was resorting to misstatement after misstatement before the court. Defendant 1 is resorting misstatement after misstatement before this Court."

Accordingly, the application was disposed of.

Cause Title - Pfizer Inc & Ors. v. Triveni Interchem Private Limited & Ors. (Neutral Citation Number: 2023/DHC/000542)

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