- (1.) Both admiralty suits are actions in rem directed against the same vessel, MV Vinashin Sky. The plaintiffs are different. There are several applications which have been listed and heard. The principal issue raised in both suits is by one Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Group though the legal status of such entity is unclear and, but for an appellate court order, such entity may not have had a right of audience in the second suit. In the opening paragraph of GA No. 3476 of 2009, which is a petition for dismissal and/or rejection of the plaint relating to the earlier suit, the Vietnamese petitioner has not elaborated on its legal status though the petitioner in claiming that one Vinashin Ocean Shipping Company Ltd is its wholly owned subsidiary, has given an impression that the petitioner is probably a company. The petitioner claims to be a State-owned enterprise of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. In the translated version of its certificate of business registration the first heading under which the petitioner's name figures reads 'Name of Company.' But it would be presumptuous to assume that the petitioner is a company in the sense that the word is understood in this country, when the petitioner has omitted to unhesitatingly describe itself as such. In paragraph 6 of its petition in the earlier suit, the petitioner has casually stated that it is 'a state owned company' and that 'the petitioner company is an instrumentality of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.' It is the petitioner's understanding of the Indian law in the context of Section 86 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 'that a foreign company being a state owned company falls within the meaning of 'Foreign State' ' as has been claimed in paragraph 8 of the petition.
(2.) But admiralty jurisdiction, as experience shows, is, in a sense, treacherous territory where both the plaintiff and a party claiming to represent the res, which is at the centre of the action, oftentimes create illusions of a cause of action or a defence, whether to obtain a snap order of arrest and extract a settlement or for paving the way for the vessel to slip away. It would not do to easily assume that the petitioner is a company notwithstanding its casual averment made in one or more paragraphs of its petition and affidavits. The Vietnamese entity appears, however, to be a juristic entity. The immediate object of the present exercise is both to ascertain the nature of its organisation and to assess whether it has a legal interest in the vessel which is relevant in this jurisdiction.
(3.) There are two interlocutory actions in AS No. 15 of 2009: GA No. 3121 of 2009 is the plaintiff's petition for arrest (described in this jurisdiction as affidavit of arrest); and, GA No. 3476 of 2009 is the Vietnamese entity's petition for dismissal of the suit or rejection of the plaint relating thereto. In AS No. 19 of 2009, GA No. 3493 of 2009 is the plaintiff's affidavit of arrest and GA No. 304 of 2010 is a plea by the Vietnamese entity for supply of water to the vessel as it remains arrested by orders of this Court with its crew on board. Appropriate orders have been passed earlier on GA No. 304 of 2010 and such petition is disposed of, without prejudice to the plaintiff's contention that the petitioner therein may not have any locus standi to maintain the petition, with a direction that till such time the vessel remains arrested the crew on board should be supplied water and other essentials for survival against due payment therefor. The affidavits of arrest can only be taken up for consideration after the initial objection, though technically such objection has only been made in the first suit by way of a petition and in the second suit by an affidavit in response to the affidavit of arrest. The affidavit filed in the second suit is on behalf of an undisclosed person claiming interest in the vessel. By an appellate court order, however, the Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Group, as one of the appellants in the relevant proceedings, has to be heard on its objection to the action even in the second suit.;