The Petitioners filed a petition under Article 226 of the Constitution seeking a writ of mandamus against the Union Government, for the alleged unauthorized use and infringement of their original project titled SPAN (Student Permanent Account Number). The petition claimed that their project was copied and implemented as the Government’s APAAR ID (Automated Permanent Academic Account Registry) project and sought INR 428.5 crores as compensation.
In 1993, the Petitioners came up with the SPAN project to digitally preserve students’ educational records. They claimed copyright protection over SPAN as an original literary work under the Copyright Act, 1957. In 2024, the APAAR ID was launched and the Petitioners claimed that it was identical in concept and structure. Further, they also stated that they had shared their idea with the Government in 2017. However, the Delhi High Court found no proof of dispatch or receipt of such a letter, nor any evidence that the SPAN project details were shared with or accessed by the Respondents. The Court also noted that the copyright application for SPAN was still pending when APAAR ID was launched, negating the claim of prior knowledge. Thus, the Court ruled that no case of copyright infringement was made out. Accordingly, the writ petition was dismissed.
Source: Champion Project Enterprises and Ors. v. Union of India [W.P.(C)-IPD 47/2025]