The participants in the civil litigation process concern themselves with torts (

Question

The participants in the civil litigation process concern themselves with torts (civil wrongs) committed by tortfeasors against plaintiffs. If the tortfeasor gets sued, they become the defendant and hire an attorney. Both sides investigate the merits of the complaint, line up witnesses, and prepare to argue their side before a judge and jury. Juries in civil cases can award compensatory damages to pay the plaintiff for actual loss suffered, but sometimes they can also award punitive damages above actual loss to punish the defendant and discourage others. Your assignment this week is to answer the following questions: Find two cases where punitive damages were awarded: One in which you feel the damages were justified, and One in which they were not. Explain your answers.

Explanation / Answer

Common Cause v. Union of India, the Supreme Court of India came around to actually making punitive award.

In that case, the court found that a government minister had acted oppressively by unfairly allowing certain people to build gas stations, and it awarded about $100,000 in punitive damages.

Explanation - In this cases I feel the damage was not justified, as the decision to build gas station does not include only a government minister and it is a group of department which is involved and hence no one party to a crime should only be punished. Before building a gas station, applicant has to go through series of approval and documentation process which is reviewed and analysed by several department and authorities and hence the damage should not be awarded against only the minister.

Delhi High Court's ruling in Time Inc. v. Lokesh Srivastava. The U.S.-based magazine sued a Hindi-language Indian magazine for copying its distinctive red cover design. Time also complained the magazine's title, Sanskaran, was a transliteration of the English word "time."

The court said the time had come for granting punitive and exemplary damages in IP matters, and awarded roughly $10,000 in compensatory damages and $12,500 in punitive damages toTime.

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Explanation --- Above punitive reward is justified in my view, as the same was a practice in large and was unethical corporate practice to stop the same only compensatory damage is not enough and hence the step taken is to curb the present scenarios and discourage the other corporate in future and to stop the issue completely

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