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State Trading Corporation of India Ltd. v. M/S Global Steel Holding Limited (GSHL)

Miscellaneous Application · 2019 INSC 355Decided 12 Mar 2019
Miscellaneous Application No. 320 of 2019 in Civil Appeal No. 11907 of 2018
Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre · Justice Indu Malhotra

Background

This miscellaneous application arose out of a long-running commercial dispute between the State Trading Corporation of India (STC) and Global Steel Holding Limited (GSHL), which had earlier been settled through Settlement Agreements in 2010 and 2012. Pursuant to an earlier Supreme Court order, the respondents were required to pay Rs. 600 crores in interest by 28 February 2019 to fully discharge their liabilities under those settlement agreements.

Decision Breakdown

The Court was informed by counsel for both sides that the Rs. 600 crore payment had been made in full and that all liabilities under the settlement agreements now stood satisfied, with STC confirming it had no further claims against the respondents. Exercising its special powers under Article 142 read with Article 136 of the Constitution, the Supreme Court quashed a series of related legal proceedings that had arisen from the dispute, including a CBI FIR, an Enforcement Directorate case, a passport-related show cause notice, any Look Out Notice against the promoter and his family, and eleven pending criminal complaints, and recorded STC's statement that it would not pursue separate winding-up proceedings against GSHL in the Isle of Man. The application was disposed of in these terms with no order as to costs.

Lesson Learnt

Once parties to a long-standing commercial dispute achieve full and verified settlement, the Supreme Court can use its special Article 142 powers to comprehensively close out all related ancillary proceedings, criminal, regulatory, and otherwise, that arose from the same underlying dispute, preventing continued litigation over a matter already resolved.

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

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