Delhi High Court Rejects Commercial Bank Of Kuwait's' Application For Deletion In A Suit On The Ground Of Lack Of Jurisdiction

The Plaintiff had entered into a transaction for the export of wholesale food items with a Kuwait-based Company. It was agreed between the Parties, as is common in international transactions, that the payment of goods shipped would be through 'collection of documents' or 'payment collection against bill'.

The Plaintiff had alleged that Commercial Bank of Kuwait was in violation of the ICC Uniform Rules of Collection (URC-522) since it released the documents related to the transaction against a written undertaking and without seeking acceptance of Bill of Exchange from the Company based in Kuwait.

The Bank had approached the High Court under Order I Rule 10 of CPC, 1908 seeking deletion of its name from the array of parties in the Suit. It was argued on behalf of the Bank that it neither had an office nor the cause of action arose within the jurisdiction of this Hon'ble Court. Further, it was argued that there is no contractual obligation, and it acted on the instructions of the Plaintiff's Bank.

The arguments advanced on behalf of the Plaintiff was that the Bank of Kuwait has acted without instructions and the averments made in the Plaint can only be decided by way of a trial. The Hon'ble Court while dismissing the Application was of the view that based on the averments and documents in the Plaint, the Bank of Kuwait cannot be deleted from the array of parties.

Mr. Jayant K. Mehta, Sr. Advocate along with Ms. Manmeet Kaur, Principal Associates and Ms. Suditi Batra, Mr. Gurtejpal Singh, Associates from Karanjawala & Co. appeared in the matter on behalf of Plaintiff, Victor Foods India Private Limited. Defendant No.3, Commercial Bank of Kuwait was represented by Trilegal.

CS(OS)1664/20111664/2011

Click here to read/ download order