The Madras High Court on Saturday (June 13, 2020) ordered an arrest of a vessel, Tug Varahi, berthed at Adani Port, Kattupalli. The warrant of arrest was served on the vessel in the wee hours of Sunday (June 14, 2020), 1:30 am to be precise in the midst of the prevalent lockdown due to the pandemic. The plea for such arrest was filed by Angre Port Pvt. Ltd. The matter was mentioned on Friday i.e., June 12, 2020 before the Madras High Court through video conferencing and in light of the urgency involved, the High Court made an exception and placed the matter for urgent reliefs on Saturday.

Counsel Mr. Prathamesh Kamat, along with Advocates Pooja Tidke, Krushi N Barfiwala, Ryan Mendes and Yash Bajaj from Parinam Law Associates appeared for the Plaintiff.  The Hon’ble Court was apprised that the vessel is a Tug and had occupied the berth at the Plaintiff’s port from May 2019 to February 2020. There was some dispute with regard to the ownership of the vessel at the time when it was docked at the Plaintiff’s port and a suit before the Hon’ble Bombay High Court had been filed whereby the Hon’ble Bombay High Court had ordered arrest of the vessel. Subsequently, the arrest was lifted when the parties to the suit filed consent terms. One of the parties agreed to pay the entire sum of berth hire and other relevant charges of the Plaintiff’s port and recorded the terms of such payment in a letter of undertaking. Based on such letter of undertaking, the Plaintiff port had granted port clearance to the vessel and permitted the same to sail away. However, on non-payment of the port dues as per the Consent Terms, the present suit was filed to re-arrest the vessel which was then lying at Adani Port, Kattupalli.

The Suit was filed on Friday, June 12, 2020. The vessel was expected to sail on Sunday, June 14, 2020 and if not arrested in time, would render the Plaintiff’s Suit infructuous. The matter was taken up on Saturday evening and in view of the submissions made by Mr. Kamat, the Hon’ble Madras High Court observed that the Plaintiff has made out a prima facie case qua maritime lien over the vessel and that in the event the vessel sails away or if it is beached, the Plaintiff would be gravely prejudiced. Accordingly, an ad-interim ex-parte order of arrest was granted and a Bailiff was appointed to execute the warrant of arrest upon the vessel.

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