Delhi High Court Upholds Arbitral Award For Transfer Of School's "KashmirHarvard" Domain Name To Harvard College, Imposes 50K Cost

The Delhi High Court has upheld an arbitral award directing transfer of a domain name registered by Kashmir Harvard Educational Institute based in Srinagar to the President and Fellows of Harvard College in the United States of America.

Justice Prateek Jalan dismissed with Rs. 50,000 costs the plea moved by the Kashmir based educational institution against the arbitral award passed on March 04, 2023, under the “.IN Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy” (IDNDRP).

The domain name “kashmirharvard.edu.in” was registered by Kashmir Harvard Educational Institute. A complaint was submitted to NIXI by the President and Fellows of Harvard College seeking transfer or cancellation of the domain name.

The complaint claimed that Harvard has established a Harvard trademark programme, under which it enforces and licenses its trademarks described as the “HARVARD Marks”. It was mentioned that Harvard operates a website “www.harvard.edu” and social media accounts which include the name “Harvard”.

Justice Jalan rejected the plea observing that there were no grounds to hold that the impugned arbitral award was contrary to Section 34(2) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act.

“In fact, the arguments advanced by the petitioner show a scant regard for the limited scope of intervention with an award in an international commercial arbitration, or for the process of the Court. Pleas have been advanced which are contrary to the record, and attempt after attempt has been made to mislead the Court. I, therefore, consider this to be a fit case for imposition of costs against the petitioner,” the court said.

It added: “The petition, alongwith pending applications, is dismissed with costs assessed at ₹50,000/-, payable to the respondent, within 4 weeks from today.”

The court observed that the Kashmir based institute failed to make out a case of breach of the principles of natural justice and that it had clearly admitted receipt of the award by speed post in the application for condonation of delay.

It further said that the service of communications and the award were also effected upon the institute at the email address mentioned in the domain registration information.

“For the aforesaid reasons, I do not find any grounds to hold that the impugned award is contrary to Section 34(2) of the Act,” the court said.

Counsel for Petitioner: Mr. Keshav Thakur, Mr. Mahesh Prasad, Ms. Malak Mathur, Mr. Prithvi Thakur & Mr. Ritik Kumar, Advocates

Counsel for Respondent: Mr. R.K. Aggarwal, Ms. Ayushi Bansal & Mr. Vinay Padam, Advocates

Title: KASHMIR HARVARD EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTE v. PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OF HARVARD COLLEGE

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (Del) 118

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