ars (cs) 27 March 2012

Foreign agreement

For an agreement to appoint a distributor in a foreign country, for the goods manufactured in India, the foll. are the queries :

1. the agreement can be on the letter head only.

2. If stamp duty is payable, then only stamp paper is rquired or franked papers ?

3. ideally what should be jurisdiction for the arbitration and for the court.

4. can we insist on mumbai, india as the jurisdiction for any kind of dispute?

experts are requested to reply and share their experience in this kind of agreements.

Reply Follow

3 Replies

Rajesh Hazra (Mediator and Legal Counsel ) 27 March 2012

You can choose Mumbai for the Governing Law and the place of Arbitration.

VIRAJ KADAM (Advocate Supreme Court of India) 29 March 2012

Dear Friend,

To answer your first question; It is advised that the agreement should be on a non judicial paper of sufficient amount, required under the law.

Second, Franking is an alternative to buying stamp paper therefore; they are one and the same.

Third, You may mutually decide the place of Arbitration. However, it is advised that let the place of Arbitration be India, and the law governing should be Indian laws.

Fourth, You may have place of Arbitration as Mumbai, provided you comply with my point no three.

Regards

VIRAJ KADAM

Advocate

Supreme Court of India

virajkadam@gmail.com

ars (cs) 31 March 2012

thanks experts for the advise.

the stamp duty we use for the domestic appointments is Rs. 100/- per agreement, hence, can be the same for the foreign agreement?

What actually happens, practically if amy dispute takes place? if the jurisdiction selected is Mumbai but the cause of dispute arise in othr country e.g. the goods claimed to be short or stolen in transit, cargo reaches let due to mis management by the carrier and the distributor would like to take action on us for the delay in dispatch etc. and the importer refuses to pay.

Whast would be better for use, for any sort of dispute, to take legal route through court or arbitration - I am asking from the angle of cost and time factors.