VIJAY SPORTS CLUB Vs. CRICKET ASSOCIATION OF BENGAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is the plaintiff in Title Suit No.1587 of 2018. The title suit was filed by the petitioner, a registered Society under the Societies Registrar Act, 1961 through its President Sri Ashoke Kumar Chowdhury, before the learned Judge, 6th Bench, City Civil Court at Calcutta. The petitioner was favoured with an interim order of injunction, ex parte, by an order dated December 5, 2018 by which the learned Court below held that considering the prima facie case of the plaintiff, the balance of convenience and inconvenience and urgency of the situation, the defendant No.1 (that is the Cricket Association of Bengal) was restrained by way of an interim order of injunction to recognise anybody including the defendant No.2 that is Vijay Sports Club, a Trust, the opposite party No.2 and to allow anybody other than the plaintiff for participating in the cricket tournament to be organised by the defendant No.1 in the season 2018"?19, till January 2019.

(2.) Aggrieved by the said order, three appeals had been preferred by the opposite party No.2 before this Court which were registered as F.M.A. No.568 of 2019, F.M.A. No. 569 of 2019 and F.M.A. No.570 of 2019. By a judgement and order dated June 17, 2019, ex parte order of injunction granted in favour of the plaintiff/petitioner was set aside on the ground that the ex parte order in the said case ought to have been granted upon hearing the rival contentions of the parties, inasmuch as, the suit was not of such a nature that there was immediate need for protection, or else there would be irreparable damage to the subject matter of the suit. The said three appeals were disposed of with a direction upon the learned Court below to dispose of the pending applications within a period of three months from the date of the order. It was further recorded that the observations in the said judgement and order should not be construed as an expression on the merits of the case.

(3.) Thereafter, the opposite party Nos.2 to 4 filed an application under Order VII Rule 11 of the Code of Civil Procedure before the learned Court below for rejection of the plaint on the grounds mentioned therein. As per the directions of this Court, the application under Order VII Rule 7 of the Code of Civil Procedure as also the application for temporary injunction filed by the plaintiff were taken up for consideration by the learned Court below on September 20, 2019. During the hearing of the applications, the opposite party Nos.2 to 4 referred to a decision of the Hon'ble Apex Court dated March 14, 2019 and the observations made therein. For convenience, relevant portion of the said order is quoted below: