FERRODIE PRIVATE LIMITED Vs. MADURA COATS LIMITED

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BY the present Chamber Summons the Defendants have applied to revoke the permission granted by this Court under Clause 12 of Letters Patent to file this suit in this Court.

(2.) LEAVE under Clause 12 of the Letters Patent can be revoked when no part of the cause of action has arisen within the jurisdiction of this Court. In paragraph 35 of the Plaint, the Plaintiffs have pleaded that the contract was accepted and signed by the Plaintiffs in Bombay. Payment arising out of the suit contract were made by the Defendants to the Plaintiffs in Bombay. In other words part of the cause of action did arise in Bombay.

(3.) COUNSEL for the Plaintiffs contends that the Defendants have terminated the contract. Once the contract is terminated there can be no reliance on clause 14 of the contract. This argument could have been considered if not for prayer clause (a) in the Plaint where the Plaintiffs themselves seek a declaration that the contract subsists. Once the Plaintiffs themselves proceed on the footing that the contract subsists, the averments in the plaint and the prayers will have to be considered. So considered, Clause 14 will have to be considered as forming a part of the contract which subsists. It was also sought to the contended on behalf of the Plaintiffs by the learned Counsel that Court must see to the ends of justice. In this case all the documents are at Bombay and as such party should not be driven to file a suit at Bangalore. Once the contract was signed, parties were fully aware of the terms of the contract. Apart from that permission under Clause 12 can only be granted if part of the cause of action had arisen within the jurisdiction of this Court and part of the cause of action in some other Court. Once the parties themselves agreed to abide by the contract and conferred jurisdiction of the Court at Bangalore, it is not possible to accept the contention raised on behalf of the Plaintiffs that the Plaintiffs should not be driven to file a suit at Bangalore. Such a contention must be rejected.