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Hindustan Unilever Limited vs. Kwick Living (I) Private Limited

First Appeal from Order (Original Side, Commercial) · 2026:DHC:7445-DBDecided 2 Sept 2026New Delhi Bench
FAO(OS) (COMM) 231/2026CNR: DLHC010405482026
Justice V. Kameswar Rao · Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora

Background

Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) sued Kwick Living over an advertising campaign and sought an urgent interim injunction. A Single Judge declined to even hear the interim application because doubts had arisen about whether Delhi courts had territorial jurisdiction over the dispute, since Kwick Living's registered office was in Mumbai. HUL appealed this refusal to a Division Bench.

Decision Breakdown

The Division Bench found that hoardings for the disputed advertising campaign had been put up in Delhi before the lawsuit was filed, and that Kwick Living itself had a GST-registered principal place of business in Delhi's Naraina Industrial Area and admitted selling its products there. On this basis, the Court held that Delhi's territorial jurisdiction was clearly established under Section 20(a) and 20(c) of the Civil Procedure Code. It allowed HUL to formally amend its plaint to record these two facts and sent the case back to the Single Judge to decide the interim injunction application on its merits, directing an expedited hearing.

Lesson Learnt

A company's actual business presence in a location, such as a GST registration showing a local office, or advertisements physically displayed there, can establish a court's jurisdiction over a dispute even when the opposing company's registered office is in a different city.

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