Skip to main content

Admiralty Court Doesn’t Have Power To Arrest Cargo On Board Ship For Unrelated Claim

In the matter of Pacific Gulf Shipping (Singapore) Pte Ltd v. SRK Chemicals Ltd & Anr,  the Bombay High Court has held that an admiralty court does not have jurisdiction to arrest cargo on board a ship for an unrelated claim.

Justice SC Gupte was hearing a notice of motion filed by the defendants (SRK Chemicals) seeking release of 20,000 MT of salt that was kept as security at an open yard in Kutch, Gujarat, in lieu of cargo belonging to the defendants.

Plaintiffs claimed cost of $221,656.29 for carriage of salt belonging to the defendants in their vessel MV Pacific Pioneer from the load port of Kandla to the discharge port of Chittagong, towards outstanding demurrage charges, interest and other costs.

In an ex-parte order by a single bench of the high court dated February 10, 2017, the defendant’s cargo was arrested. On February 13, following the defendant’s request, the order of arrest was vacated and 20,000 MT of industrial salt belonging to the defendants was taken as security in lieu of the arrested cargo.

Citing the International Arrest Convention of 1952 (for sea-going ships), the court noted that there were 17 claims under which arrest could be made, this list was revived with the Arrest Convention of 1999 and 6 new claims were added.

It was further noted that neither conventions “make any exception to the original principle that no property other than that directly connected to the cause of action could be arrested, save and except the case of a sister ship”.

Therefore, only that ship or cargo can be subjected to arrest, which is directly connected with the cause of action.

Article referred: http://www.livelaw.in/admiralty-court-doesnt-power-arrest-cargo-board-ship-unrelated-claim-bombay-hc-read-judgment/

Comments

Post a Comment

Most viewed this month

Amendment of plaint under Order VI Rule 17 of the CPC explained

Cause Title :  Ganesh Prasad vs Rajeshwar Prasad, SLP (C) NO. 28377 OF 2018, Supreme Court Of India Date of Judgment/Order : 14/3/2023 Corum : J. B. Pardiwala, J. Citied:  Revajeetu Builders and Developers v. Narayanaswamy & Sons and Others reported in (2009) 10 SCC 84 North Eastern Railway Administration, Gorakhpur v. Bhagwan Das reported in (2008) 8 SCC 511 P.A. Jayalakshmi v. H. Saradha and Others reported in (2009) 14 SCC 525 B.K. Narayana Pillai v. Parameswaran Pillai and Another reported in (2000) 1 SCC 712 A.K. Gupta and Sons Ltd. v. Damodar Valley Corporation reported in AIR 1967 SC 96 Life Insurance Corporation of India v. Sanjeev Builders Private Limited and Another, Civil Appeal No. 5909 of 2022 dated 01.09.2022 Firm Sriniwas Ram Kumar v. Mahabir Prasad and Others reported in AIR 1951 SC 177 G. Nagamma and Another v. Siromanamma and Another reported in (1996) 2 SCC 25 Praful Manohar Rele v. Krishnabai Narayan Ghosalkar and Others reported in (2014...
Post a Comment
Read more

Owner of vehicle is not expected to verify the genuineness of the driving license before appointing a driver

Cause Title : Rishi Pal Singh Versus New India Assurance Co. Ltd & Ors., Civil Appeal No. 4919 Of 2022, The Supreme Court Of India Date of Judgment/Order : July 26, 2022 Corum : Hemant Gupta; J., Vikram Nath; J. Background the truck owned by the appellant met with an accident. The owner deposed before the court that before employing the driver, he had taken his driving test and that he was driving the vehicle satisfactorily and  that the driver was employed with him for 3 years before the date of the accident. He produced his driving license. This was reaffirmed by the driver who deposed that the driving license was obtained from the driver and it was issued from Nagaland, but no such license was produced on record. Both the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal and the High Court have held that the owner has alleged that the driver had a driving license from Nagaland but the same was not produced and therefore, the Insurance Company is entitled to recover the awarded amount...
Post a Comment
Read more

The recovery of vehicles by the financier not an offence - SC

Special Leave Petition (Crl.) No. 8907  of 2009 Anup Sarmah (Petitioner) Vs Bhola Nath Sharma & Ors.(Respondents) The petitioner submitted that  respondents-financer had forcibly taken away the vehicle financed by them and  illegally deprived the petitioner from its lawful possession  and  thus,  committed  a crime. The complaint filed by the petitioner had been  entertained  by  the Judicial Magistrate (Ist Class), Gauhati (Assam) in Complaint Case  No.  608 of 2009, even directing the interim custody of the vehicle (Maruti  Zen)  be given to the petitioner vide order dated  17.3.2009.  The respondent on approaching the Guwahati High  Court against this order, the hon'ble court squashed the criminal  proceedings  pending   before  the  learned Magistrate. After hearing both sides, the Hon'ble Supreme Court decided on 30th...
7 comments
Read more