Manmohan Singh, J. - (1.) THE plaintiff has filed the present suit for recovery of the sum of Rs. 1,19,25,865.45/ -. The plaintiff has its head office at Von -Gablenz Strasse, 2 -6 D -50664, Cologne, Germany and its Indian branch office at 56, Janpath, New Delhi. The cargo division of the plaintiff handles transportation of luggage to and from India.
(2.) THE defendant company is engaged in the business of couriering and merging retail courier companies, and in its line of practice approached the plaintiff for air carriage of its couriers agreeing to pay the freight and payable charges on the same. The operations of the defendant started in May 1993 whereupon it used the plaintiff 's services regularly. The plaintiff kept a running account of the bills raised upon the defendant. The plaintiff submits that the defendant was often irregular with the payment of freight and other charges payable and in fact, on various occasions the cheques issued by the defendant in lieu of the plaintiff 's services were dishonoured. There occurred various correspondences between the two parties. The plaintiff submits that vide its letter dated 29th June, 1995, it conveyed to the defendant that as the latter 's cheques were being dishonoured, the plaintiff was compelled to reduce its credit limit to Rs. 30 lac on a 15 day credit basis. The plaintiff then sent a follow up to the previous letter by a letter dated 6th July, 1995. Due to continuous non -payment on behalf of the defendant, the plaintiff sent to the defendant three letters dated 11th July, 1995, 21st July, 1995 and 29th August, 1995 - all to the effect that the plaintiff would discontinue its business with it if the latter persisted in non -payment of its long outstanding dues. The plaintiff sent similar letters dated 29th September, 1995 and 19th October, 1995, but to no avail. The only effect that the plaintiff 's letters had on the defendant was that it sent an apology and promise to pay by letter dated 8th July, 1995, and gave empty assurances of prompt payment by further two letters dated 24th May, 1995 and 30th July, 1995.
(3.) EVENTUALLY , by letter dated 22nd November, 1995 the plaintiff gave an ultimatum to the defendant to the effect that if its outstanding dues were left unpaid till after 1st December, 1995, the plaintiff would not only stop accepting shipments on cash basis but also inform others in the trade, of the defendant 's mala fides and initiate legal action as well. The plaintiff alleges that the defendant issued three cheques totalling a sum of Rs. 1,22,93,433/ -. These cheques, however, were all allegedly dishonoured on presentation on 8th January, 1996. The cheque numbers and Cheque dates of these three cheques are given as: i) Cheque No. 972366 dated 04.01.1996 ii) Cheque No. 972365 dated 05.01.1996 iii) Cheque No. 972364 dated 08.01.1995;