Calcutta High Court
Birla Corporation Limited vs The Owners And Parties Interested In The ... on 18 December, 2017
Equivalent citations: AIRONLINE 2018 CAL 737
Author: Ashis Kumar Chakraborty
Bench: Ashis Kumar Chakraborty
U/L
AS 4 of 2017
GA No. 3979 of 2017
IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA
Admiralty Jurisdiction
ORIGINAL SIDE
BIRLA CORPORATION LIMITED
VERSUS
THE OWNERS AND PARTIES INTERESTED IN THE VESSEL MV HERMANN
SCHEPERS & ANR.
BEFORE:
The Hon'ble JUSTICE ASHIS KUMAR CHAKRABORTY
Date : 18th December, 2017.
Mr. Tilok Bose,Sr. Advocate appears.
Mr. Sarbapriya Mukherjee,Advocate appears.
Mr. Bhaskar Mukherjee,Advocate appears.
Mr. Debraj Sahu,Advocate appears.
The Court :- The plaintiff has filed the admiralty suit to enforce its maritime claim against the defendant vessel, MV HERMANN SCHEPERS as the latter has caused severe damage to the plaintiff's property. The plaintiff has also prayed for arrest of the defendant vessel, MV Hermann Schepers.
On December 13, 2017 at about 8.34 A.M. while proceeding to Kolkata Port the vessel collided violently with plaintiff's jetty on river Ganges, near its factory at Birlapur, causing substantial damage to the said jetty, as also the underlying water pipe lines. From the documents disclosed in this application, it appears 2 that a joint inspection was carried out by the marine surveyors of both the plaintiff and the owners of the vessel. The report of the said surveyors indicate the extent of the damage caused by the vessel, to the plaintiff's jetty and the underlying water pipe lines. The plaintiff's surveyor has estimated the loss caused to the said jetty and the underneath water pipe lines to be of Rs. 10,25,00,000/-. In the suit the plaintiff has claimed for recovery of the loss suffered by it on account of its damaged jetty and the underlying water pipe lines. It has also claimed for recovery of the production loss of Rs. 10,00,000/- per day from December 20, 2017 onwards due to non-supply of water to its factory. In this background of facts, the plaintiff has invoked Section 7 of the Admiralty Courts Act, 1861, Section 443 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1958 and Article 1(a) and (d) of the International Convention on Arrest of Ships, 1999 to file the suit for arrest of the vessel, MV Hermann Schepers to enforce its maritime claim against the said vessel.
Having considered the averments made in the application and the documents disclosed by the plaintiff, I find that the claims of the plaintiff are maritime claims and it has made out a prima facie case and the balance of convenience wholly lies in favour of passing an order of arrest of the vessel, MV HERMANN SHEPERS, as prayed for in this application.
Accordingly, there shall be an interim order directing the Marshall of this Court to forthwith arrest the vessel, MV HERMANN SHEPERS, along with her tackle, apparel and furniture.
3
The Marshall shall forthwith communicate the order of arrest to the concerned Port Authority, Coast Guard Authorities and Customs Authorities by FAX message and electronic mail.
Upon payment of necessary charges by the petitioner, the Marshall will also serve the order of arrest including the copy of the affidavit of arrest of the Master of the vessel. The Marshall's communication shall be affixed on the MAST of the vessel concerned.
Similarly, the plaintiff shall also communicate this order to the Port Authorities, Customs Authorities and Coastguard Authorities.
In the event, the Marshall finds the vessel has left Kolkata Port, the Coast Guard Authorities are directed to take all steps for arrest of the vessel before leaving territory of India.
It is, however, clarified that in the event the defendants deposit the amount of Rs. 12,25,00,000/- as security with the Registrar, Original Side of this Court, this order of arrest of the vessel, shall stand automatically vacated.
The Port Authorities and the Commandant, CISF are directed to render all necessary assistance to the Marshall to implement this order.
The application, GA 3979 of 2017 is made returnable on December 20, 2017.
All parties, including the Port Authorities, Customs Authorities, Coast Guard Authorities and the CISF shall act on a photostat signed copy of this order on the usual undertaking.
(ASHIS KUMAR CHAKRABORTY, J.) 4 S.Chandra