Anand & Anand represented Astra Zeneca UK Limited & Ors vs Watson Laboratories Inc. (NV). They obtained the first order under the Hague Convention where a non party witness is compelled to disclose documents at the cost of appropriate action by the court for the benefit of a USA law proceedings relating to the infringement of a patent.

This is the first case under the Hague Convention where, there are proceedings pending for the infringement of a patent in USA, in those proceedings, the plaintiff desires to collect evidence from witnesses in India, the witnesses in India are not parties to the proceedings, there is a protective order in USA which protects confidential information, the US court under the Hague Convention sends a letter of request to an Indian court to have the evidence collected in India. The Indian court i.e. in this case the High Court of Andhra Pradesh at Hyderabad appoints a local commissioner to collect the evidence, the local commissioner is unable to do so as the witness refuses to give documents claiming them to be confidential, the High Court in India forces the witness to disclose the documents on the ground that he is obliged to give them and that the protective order in USA would protect the information against disclosure, leakage etc. Hence no prejudice would be caused to him, the court directs that if the documents are not supplied, appropriate action will be taken against the company as also the witness.

This order is of great precedent to make the Hague proceedings highly effective for the collection of evidence in India.