Mumbai: City-based information provider Just Dial has managed to get an injunction against a rival firm, which it claimed had stolen its entire database of millions of phone numbers and started using it as its own.

"It was a significant legal victory for us as it was an aspect of cyber crime that is rarely talked about," said Rajesh Khona, corporate head of Just Dial, which provides phone numbers of various categories of service providers on request.

Khona said he first noticed that his firm's database was being used by someone else a month ago. "Till date, we don't have a clue how the rivals managed to get all our numbers as we have put very strict security checks in place," Khona said.

The matter came to light when officials at Just Dial noticed that their database was part of the website of a Hyderabad-based search engine called Info Dial. Even the minor errors in the data were being repeated in the other website, which confirmed their fears of misuse of numbers by someone else.

"We initially wanted the Hyderabad police to take action , but they squabbled over whose jurisdiction the matter fell in," said K Srinivas, legal head of Just Dial.

The firm then filed a writ petition in the Delhi high court under the Copyright Act. Justice Reva Khetrapal agreed that prima facie, there was a case of infringement of Just Dial's database.

Info Dial has been ordered to stop work until the copyright case is heard.

The court appointed a commissioner to visit Info Dial's Hyderabad office and seize computers and other storage media, which could be later used as evidence in court. Meanwhile, Info Dial has taken its website offline and it is no longer accessible to the public.

"We take such matters very seriously as we have spent a lot of time and resources in creating a vast database . It was difficult for us to digest that someone could hijack it and start using it as if it were his own," Khona said.

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