- (1.) By means of present writ petition the petitioner seeks a writ, order or direction in the nature of mandamus commanding the respondents to release the containers to the petitioner. Briefly stated the facts giving rise to the present writ petition are as follows: The petitioner is a privately owned shipping company registered under the Indian Companies Act. It is a multinational company having operations in the Indian sub-continent, Middle East & South East Asia. Its core business is shipping especially transportation of containerized cargo. For the transportation of cargo the petitioner-company uses company-owned as well as leased containers. In October, 2009, M/s. ONS Maritime Pvt. Ltd. - an international freight forwarder located at Pratap Vihar, Ghaziabad - placed booking orders for forty numbers of 20'DV containers for the shipment of Oil Well Chemicals cargo. The orders were placed on behalf of Vission Mineral and Energy, 301, III Floor, Street No. 3, Gaffar Manzil, Jamia Nagar, New Friends Colony, New Delhi. The petitioner-company released forty numbers of requisite empty containers from its depot, M/s. LCL Logistics (India) Pvt. Ltd. to the shipper M/s. Vision Mineral and Energy though the above-mentioned freight forwarder ONS Maritime Pvt. Ltd. for stuffing the cargo in their factory.
(2.) While containers were on the move it was seized by the Customs Authorities at ICD Dadri on 13-10-2009 on the ground that some restricted commodity is being transported/exported in these containers. The goods were given on 23-1-2010 in the supurdagi of the Chief Manager, Container Corporation of India Ltd. Inland Container Depot, Noida-Dadri Road, Near Dadri Railway Station, Tilapata, Greater Noida, District Gautam Budha Nagar, Uttar Pradesh, the respondent no. 2. All the forty containers are standing there. Since then correspondences have been exchanged between the parties. The petitioner is pressing for release of containers after unloading the goods contained therein. The petitioner earlier approached the Delhi High Court by means of Writ Petition No. 3925 of 2011 seeking release of the containers. It has been dismissed as withdrawn vide judgment and order dated 12-9-2011 on the ground that the Delhi High Court has no territorial jurisdiction to entertain the petition. Thereafter, the petitioner has approached this Court by means of filing the present writ petition. On 12-12-2011 the Court while entertaining the writ petition had passed following order: Sri R.C. Shukla, appears for respondent No. 1. The petitioner is permitted to serve the notice on respondent no. 2 outside the Court and file an affidavit of service within a week. Office to hand over Dasti notices within three days. The notice will indicate that the writ petition will be taken up as a fresh case on 20th December 2011. The respondent No. 2 shall instruct its counsel as to why the containers are not being released after unloading the goods therein in terms of the order issued by the respondent No. 1.
(3.) Sri Arun Kumar Shukla has put in appearance on behalf of respondent no. 2 and has also filed a counter affidavit today, which is taken on record.;