But the Court gave them 3 months time to abide by the order of the Delhi High Court and rename their paper to something other than 'Saurashtra Aaj Tak'.

Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected the petition by a Gujarati Newspaper that wanted to challenge the Delhi High Court Order against them to not use the name 'Saurashtra Aaj Tak' as it might lead the public to think that they were related to Aaj Tak news channel.

TV Today who runs Aaj Tak news channel informed the High Court that by naming their newspaper 'Saurashtra Aaj Tak', the Gujarat newspaper is committing the offence of passing off.

The Delhi High Court took a call in this matter on 30th July where they agreed to this contention and ordered the Gujarat newspaper to take up a different name. The name should not be similar or deceptively similar to the mark 'Aaj Tak' held by TV Today Network.

Now the Supreme Court has accepted this judgement.

A bench of Hon'ble Chief Justice of India Mr. Surya Kant and Justice Mrs. Joymalya Bagchi did not find any justification for them to interfere in the judgement given by the High Court as this falls under passing off.

When the Counsellor for the newspaper pleaded to be given some time at least 6 months to change their name, Hon'ble CJI Surya Kant said:-

And dismissed the petition.

This dispute came into play when TV Today realised that there is a Gujarati daily named 'Saurashtra Aaj Tak' that is running out of Rajkot in the year 2002. They approached the Court and filed a suit of passing off against them in April 2003.

The Trial Court in Delhi granted them permission to continue with their name but asked them to print a disclaimer on their papers to make it clear to the public that they are not affiliated to TV Today.

This judgment was challenged by TV Today in the Delhi High Court.

The Delhi High Court in it's Judgment on 30th July given by Justice Mini Pushkarna set aside the order passed by the Trial Court. The Delhi High Court held that you cannot rectify deceptive similarity by using a disclaimer in case of well known marks.

They also held that 'Aaj Tak' became a distinctive mark after its continued usage from 1995 and even if you add 'Saurashtra' to the beginning of the name it doesn't negate passing off. Since the newspaper could not prove any good-will of their own or that they adopted the name bona fide.

Hence the Delhi High Court issued a permanent injunction that they have to rename their newspaper to something else entirely.