Letters Patent Act, 1865:
Clause 12 – Suit for declaration, damages and grant of injunction filed by appellant in the Calcutta High Court on its original side along with an application seeking leave to file the civil suit as required under Clause 12 of the Letters Patent Act, 1865 – Single Judge of the High Court granted leave to appellant as prayed for – Respondent, on entering appearance, filed an application praying for revocation of leave granted to the appellant on the ground that no part of cause of action arose within the territorial jurisdiction of Calcutta High Court – Single Judge revoked the leave – Division Bench affirmed the order of Single Judge – On appeal, held: Since in the instant case, the respondents did not file any written statement and instead raised the plea of territorial jurisdiction by filing application for revocation of leave, High Court should have granted liberty to the respondents (defendants) to file the written statement in the suit and to raise therein a plea of territorial jurisdiction of the Court, instead of entertaining the said application – An issue of such nature, cannot be tried by filing an application for revocation of leave – Application filed by the respondents for revocation of grant of leave is dismissed and the respondent is granted liberty to file their written statement in answer to the plaint and raise therein the plea in question along with all other pleas relating to the facts and law as the case may be – Impugned order is set aside and matter remanded to Single Judge of High Court to decide the issue afresh – Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 – Or.XIV.
Allowing the appeal and remitting the matter to Single Judge of the High Court, the Court
HELD: 1. A plea of territorial jurisdiction is essentially a mixed question of law and fact. It is for this reason, the respondents(defendants) should be allowed to raise such plea in the written statement to enable the Court to try it on its merits in accordance with law in the light of the requirements of Order 14 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 and other relevant provisions governing the issue on merits. [Para 20] [961-H; 962-A]
2. The application filed by the respondents (defendants) for revocation of grant of leave is dismissed and the respondent is granted liberty to file their written statement in answer to the plaint and raise therein the plea in question along with all other pleas relating to the facts and law as the case may be. On such written statement being filed, the Single Judge will frame appropriate issues arising in the suit and proceed to answer them in accordance with law keeping in view the procedure laid down in Order 14 of the Code of Civil Procedure. [Paras 22, 23] [962-C, D]
Indian Mineral & Chemicals Co. & Ors. v. Deutsche Bank (2004) 12 SCC 376 - relied on
Secretary of State v. Golabrai Paliram AIR 1932 Calcutta 146 – approved
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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