TRUSUNS CHEMICAL INDUSTRY LTD Vs. TATA INTERNATIONAL LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner of this Civil Revision Application is the original opponent of Execution Petition No.610/2001, pending before the City Civil Court at Ahmedabad. The said petition is preferred by the present respondent, Tata International Ltd., for enforcement of a foreign award. In the aforesaid application, the petitioner herein, who is the original opponent of that application has raised various preliminary objections, which are negatived by the trial Court. The petitioner-original opponent has approached this Court by way of this revision under Section 115 of C.P.C. Since the present petitioner has also filed a suit for declaration and injunction, which is pending in the Court of Civil Judge (S.D.) at Gandhidham, the present petitioner has also filed an application under Section 24 of C.P.C., being M.C.A. No.1501/2002, for transfer of Execution Petition pending in the City Civil Court to the Court of Civil Judge (S.D.) at Gandhidham. The present respondent, Tata International Ltd., has filed a Special Civil Application No.11866/ 2003, under Article 227 of the Constitution of India, by which certain observations made by the trial Court in its judgement are challenged. Since decision in Special Civil Application and Misc.Civil Application depends upon the decision of this Civil Revision Application, parties have addressed the Court at length in this Civil Revision Application.

(2.) In order to appreciate the controversy between the parties, it is necessary to refer to certain factual aspects of the matter. The respondent of this Civil Revision Application, Tata International Ltd., and the present petitioner entered into two contracts, by which the respondent had agreed to purchase certain quantity of special grade Caster Oil from the present petitioner herein. Subsequently, some dispute arose between the parties and ultimately arbitration proceedings have been initiated. The dispute was raised before the Arbitrator, i.e. Federation of Oil, Seeds & Fats Associations Ltd., London, U.K. (FOSFA). The arbitral tribunal passed an award, being award No.3747 of 2001 dated 1-2-2001, directing the present petitioner to pay certain sum of money as damages. It is pointed out to this Court that present petitioner preferred an appeal to FOSFA Board against the said arbitral award. Ultimately, the said appeal was withdrawn by the present petitioner and the award of the arbitral tribunal became final.

(3.) It seems that, initially, the respondent preferred an application before the Bombay High Court for enforcing the said award by resorting to Section 47 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996. The present petitioner was the respondent before the Bombay High Court. In the said proceedings, petitioner herein has submitted various objections regarding maintainability of the aforesaid petition before the Bombay High Court. The Bombay High Court came to the conclusion that it has no territorial jurisdiction, as no part of cause of action arose within the territorial limits of the said Court and, therefore, the said application was rejected by the Bombay High Court on the ground that the same is not maintainable before that Court.