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Isha Distribution House Pvt. Ltd. v. Aditya Birla Nuvo Ltd. & Anr.

Civil Appeal · 2019 INSC 330Decided 7 Mar 2019
Civil Appeal Nos. 2554-2555 of 2019
Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre · Justice Dinesh Maheshwari

Background

The appellant (plaintiff) sued the respondents in the Calcutta High Court's original side, seeking a declaration that two agreements terminated by the respondents were wrongful, along with damages and injunction, after first obtaining leave under Clause 12 of the Letters Patent Act, 1865 to file there. The respondents applied to revoke this leave, arguing no part of the cause of action arose in Calcutta but at Bangalore instead. The High Court allowed the revocation application and dismissed the appellant's review petition.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that a plea of territorial jurisdiction is a mixed question of law and fact that should not be decided through a standalone application to revoke leave, but must instead be raised as a defence in the written statement and tried on the merits along with the rest of the case, consistent with prior Supreme Court precedent on the issue. It set aside the High Court's and the Single Judge's orders, dismissed the respondents' revocation application, but gave them liberty to raise the jurisdiction plea formally in their written statement, with the trial court to then frame issues and decide the matter, without the Supreme Court expressing any view on the merits of jurisdiction itself.

Lesson Learnt

A defendant who believes a court lacks territorial jurisdiction must usually raise that objection in the written statement and have it decided along with the evidence in the case, not short-circuit the suit through an early standalone application: fair process requires the issue to be tried properly.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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