Kamlesh (SENIOR COUNSEL) 29 November 2014

Territorial jurisdiction

HI, all

Sr. Lawyers,

Suggestions required.

A recovery suit was filed and proceedings took palace.

Sub Matter and story is “

Plaintiff : A security service providing company .

Defendant : Gammon India is a company having Head office in Bombay, works for it small or medium size contracts in different locations across India.

1. Plaintiff has worked for Defendant on contract bases.

2. Defendant did not paid the amount, and contracted work was finished.

3. No written contract were made in exclusion of a single paper provided by defendant to plaintiff (without sign and stamped).

4. Plaintiff is engage in providing security service and contracted with Defendant Gammon India pvt ltd to whom plaintiff provided the services (security service) for defendant on going project is Punjab.

5. Contract completed and defendant “wind up” from Punjab without paying the plaintiff for services.

6. Recovery suit initiated in Tis Hazari Court 5-6 years back. When it came for judgement, defendant declared ex-parte.

7. Now Court Questioning the Juridiction maintainability of the suit “ says since the service/work was provided in Punjab , plaintiff has to file suit in Punjab “. Or Else Plaintiff should come with any authority / citation that support that “ Section 20 of CPC of Territorial Jurisdiction is satisfied here”.

8. Ld. Judge logic says that Presumption of Territorial Jurisdiction never applies it has to be specific, Even If the Defendant does not Oppose the Jurisdiction the suit will not maintainable.

Please suggest

1. What can we do to get Judgement in favour of plaintiff.

2. What defense we can put before the court proving the Territorial Juridiction maintainability of the suit.

3. How to satisfy the requirement of CPC SECTION 20.

4. What state (Punjab : where the service was provided and now company is no more working there as it has completed working in that state, OR Bombay where the head office of the defendant company situated.) ?

KAMLESH JHA & ASSOCIATES

CH NO T 1 TEHSIL LANE, TIS HAZARI DELHI.

9999332085 ,

VINAY SHARMA

9811087833

Reply Follow

4 Replies

Advocate dishi (AM LEGAL) 29 November 2014

wat abut cause of action ?cause of action is important part

Advocate Bhartesh goyal (advocate) 29 November 2014

As per sec 20 of CPC suit can be filed at place where opposite party resides or carries on business or where cause of action wholly or partly arises. convince the court that plaintiff had provided services at Punjab but payment for such services had to be made by defendant at Delhi.Defendant failed to make such payment at Delhi so cause of action arose at Delhi. .

Vijay Kumar (Advocate) 29 November 2014

Whether objection to Jurisdiction has been taken in Written Statement?

T. Kalaiselvan, Advocate (Advocate) 03 December 2014

Even without objection to jurisdiction by the defendant, the court may dismiss the suit on jurisdictional point of view if the suit is not falling within the jurisdiction of the court. Since the cause of action is at Punjab, a suit may be filed in the state of Punjab in the town where the cause of action arose or in the state of Maharashtra where the defendant resides now. Since there is no written contract at all, the clause of jurisdiction for legal issues cannot be established now merely based on the payments received at Delhi.