NIRMA LIMITED Vs. JAI AGENCIES

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By way of this application under Article 227 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner-original plaintiff has challenged the legality and validity of the order passed by the learned Commercial Court, City Civil Court at Ahmedabad dtd. 22/12/2022 in Commercial Civil Suit No.625 of 2020 and asked for consequential relief. The reliefs, as sought for in the present petition, are as under;

(2.) The background of the facts which has given rise to the present petition is that the petitioner-original plaintiff is a company registered under the provisions of the Companies Act , 1956 and is engaged in the business of manufacturing and selling the products which include the washing powder, detergent cake, bath soap etc., whereas the respondent No.1-original defendant No.1 is a partnership firm and respondent Nos.2 to 5 are the original defendant Nos.2 to 5 who are the partners of the respondent No.1-firm. It is the case of the petitioner that respondent No.1 was used to purchase the goods manufactured by the petitioner and the accounting of transaction was done with the mutual current account for the period commencing from 2/4/2004 to 24/11/2004. In response to the business transaction, the petitioner supplied goods worth Rs.1,92,83,016.00 to respondent No.1 and the payment with respect to this remained outstanding and the interest was accumulating, and as such, the respondent No.1, later on, requested the petitioner to shift the outstanding amount from current account to loan account to reduce the rate of interest and approximately, the respondent No.1 paid an amount of Rs.35,00,000.00 towards its outstanding amount, but even after adjustment of the said amount, the total amount of Rs.1,56,94,025.00 remained due and payable. Time and again, the petitioner reminded to clear the aforesaid outstanding dues and by giving assurances, the respondent No.1 continued to purchase the goods from the petitioner under the mutual current account, but then the respondent failed to discharge his duty to make the repayment, as a result of this, the petitioner was constrained to re-transfer the outstanding dues of the respondent No.1 from loan account to current account. Resultantly, the amount due and payable remained as Rs.3,56,39,450.00.

(3.) It is the case of the petitioner that the respondent, against its outstanding amount as stated of Rs.1,96,33,790.00 for the period commencing from 3 rd April, 2004 to 14/12/2004 issued various credit notes between 2/4/2004 to 19/11/2004 totaling around Rs.3,55,226.00 and with a view to discharge its dues, the respondent No.1 issued two cheques being Cheque No.304956 for the amount of Rs.78,31,080.00 dtd. 24/11/2004 and another cheque bearing No.304957 for the amount of Rs.78,31,080.00 dtd. 1/12/2004, and the said cheques when deposited for encashment, were dishonoured with an endorsement of "Refer to Drawer".