Full Order Text
Interim Order 1 · 24 Jul 2024 · CNR MHCC010090662022
Order Details: Other Pdf Text: SJ No.100169 / 2023, Netcore – Bliss Order (Exh.7) 1 of 8 City Civil and Sessions Court, Mazgaon, Greater Mumbai Court Room No. 31 – Commercial Court (Additional District Judge : Vijay S. Hingne, LL. M.) MHCC010077492023 SJ Filed : 12.06.2023 Arguments Heard : 24.07.2024 Decided on : 24.07.2024 Duration : 01 Y, 01 M, 12 D Exhibit No. 7 Commercial Summary Suit No. 100438 / 2022 Summons for Judgment No. 100169 / 2023 Plaintiff : M/s. Netcore Cloud Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai VERSUS Defendant : Bliss Inns Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi. Appearances Plaintiff : Adv. Ms. Khushbu Jain Defendant : Adv. Shri M. A. Khan Summons for Judgment ************************************************************************ ORDER (Pronounced on this 24th Day of July, 2024) Plaintiff has preferred Summons for Judgment. Defendant is seeking unconditional leave to defend. -- 1 of 8 -- SJ No.100169 / 2023, Netcore – Bliss Order (Exh.7) 2 of 8 Points for determination : 2) Perused record. Heard the Learned Counsels. Points for determination, findings and reasons are as follows : Points Findings 1. Is plaintiff entitled for Summons for Judgment?.............................. In the Negative. 2. Is defendant entitled for Leave to Defend?.......................…..……... As per final order. 3. What Order? …………………… As per final order. R E A S O N S Case of plaintiff : 3) M/s. Netcore Cloud Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai, Maharashtra, is registered company (hereinafter, plaintiff), engaged in business of providing Affiliate Marketing. Bliss Inns Pvt. Ltd, New Delhi, is also registered company (hereinafter, defendant). 4) Vide Purchase Orders Dt. 22.08.2018, 16.10.2018, 25.10.2018, 31.10.2018, 02.12.2018 and 24.12.2018 (hereinafter, Orders) defendant sought Affiliate Marketing Services i.e. SMS, Voice Cost and Mailer Services from plaintiff. Accordingly, plaintiff generated Invoices of aggregate .36,10,423/-. ₹ 5) Through emails Dt. 31.12.2018, 02.01.2019 and 04.02.2019, defendant, approved the services. However, it defaulted the payment. On 19.06.2019 and 21.01.2020, plaintiff issued Notice under Rule 5 of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Rules. On 22.07.2019 and 31.01.2020, defendant issued reply stating that, it had never placed any orders. Alleged orders are issued by Sarika Shrivastava, who is removed by defendant on 06.02.2019. Sarika had no authority to place any such orders. Hence, on 12.08.2022, plaintiff filed Commercial Summary Suit No. 100438 / 2022, for recovery of .36,10,423/-. ₹ -- 2 of 8 -- SJ No.100169 / 2023, Netcore – Bliss Order (Exh.7) 3 of 8 Application at Exh. 12 : 6) Plaintiff filed application at Exh. 12, U / Sec. 151 of the CPC, contending that, defendant filed Vakilpatra through its Director Vivek Bihani. Vivek did not filed the Leave to Defend. Its Chief Executive Officer Aditi Balbir retired on 21.03.2023 and thereafter Leave to Defend is filed on 15.06.2023 by Aditi. Further, defendant has not annexed any Authority Letter or Board Resolution authorizing Aditi to file the reply. Said Leave to Defend, being unauthorized, be strike off. Defendant, through reply (Exh. 13) opposed application. 7) Stage of the Suit is, arguments regarding Summons for Judgment. In that backdrop, parties are expected to raise their contentions merely through pleadings. For that purpose, evidence of the parties is not required. For appreciation of pleadings, Court cannot have technical approach. Therefore, at this stage, such objection cannot be considered. Hence, application, deserves to be filed. Summons for Judgment 100169 / 2023 (Exh.7, Dt. 12.06.2023) : 8) Documents filed by plaintiff are sufficient to prove the Claim. Against it, defendant does not have any triable issue. Hence, Summons for Judgment, be allowed and Suit be decreed. Leave to Defend of Defendant (Exh. 9, Dt. 24.06.2023) : 9) Defendant Summons for Judgment on numerous grounds and prayed for unconditional leave to defend : 1. Defendant is carrying business at Gurgaon. Hence, City Civil Court, Mumbai, lacks territorial jurisdiction to conduct the Suit. 2. Defendant never issued any emails, placing the orders or acknowledging the debt. 3. There is no contract between plaintiff and defendant regarding the services. 4. Alleged Orders are obtained by plaintiff from Sarika -- 3 of 8 -- SJ No.100169 / 2023, Netcore – Bliss Order (Exh.7) 4 of 8 Shrivastava, who was never authorized by defendant, to place any order with plaintiff. 5. Alleged Cause of action arose for plaintiff on 13.03.2019. Hence, Suit Dt. 12.08.2022, is time-barred. Reasons as to Point No. 1 to No. 3 : 10) All points being interconnected, are taken for common discussion. Employer-Employee Relationship : 11) Plaintiff is claiming that, Sarika Shrivastava (hereinafter, Sarika) is employee of defendant and she placed orders through emails during 22.08.2018 to 24.12.2018. Defendant is claiming that, Sarika was never authorized to place any such orders. Said Sarika has already left service of defendant on 06.02.2019. 12) By contending that, Sarika left service on 06.02.2019, defendant is admitting that, Sarika was its employee. However, defendant did not clarified as to why Sarika left the service or whether it was the defendant who terminated her service. No such document is filed by defendant. Alleged Orders were placed on 22.08.2018 to 24.12.2018 and thereafter, Sarika discontinued services on 06.02.2019. So, duration during which Orders were placed, Sarika was in employment of defendant. Sarika, being the employee of defendant, then her acts will bind the employer i.e. defendant. Who committed fraud : 13) Defendant is claiming that, without any authorization from defendant, Sarika has fraudulently placed orders. Hence, it needs deliberation, whether it is fraud committed by plaintiff + Sarika, to extract money from defendant. -- 4 of 8 -- SJ No.100169 / 2023, Netcore – Bliss Order (Exh.7) 5 of 8 It may also happen that, defendant after placing order through Sarika, removed her from service, so as to subsequently raise this ground / defense about fraud. Hence, it also needs deliberation, whether it is fraud committed by defendant + Sarika, to avoid payment to plaintiff. Orders on Letter-head of Vresorts : 14) Plaintiff claimed that, Sarika placed six Orders. Plaintiff filed copies of this Orders at Page No. 20 to No. 28 of the Plaint. Perusal shows that, these Orders are on the letterhead of V-RESORTS. 15) Alleged emails, through which Orders came to be placed, are filed by plaintiff at Page No. 35 to 43. These emails are originating from mail IDs as sarika.srivastava@vresorts.in, gaurav.malik@veresorts.in and yatin.sharma@vresorts.in. It means, Orders were placed by company from letterhead and mail-id of V-RESORTS. Is V-Resort and Bliss Inns, same entity : 16) Plaintiff has filed the Suit against Bliss Inns Pvt. Ltd. In that backdrop, question arises as to, if Orders are placed by V-RESORTS, then whether Bliss Inns is answerable? Plaintiff has not disclosed relationship between V- RESORTS (which placed the Orders) and Bliss Inns (defendant, from whom plaintiff is seeking recovery). 17) It was argued by plaintiff that, V-RESORTS and Bliss Inns are same. Had that been the case, then plaintiff ought to have pleaded said fact in specific words in the plaint that, these are same companies or subsidiary of the other. That apart, no such documents are filed on record. -- 5 of 8 -- SJ No.100169 / 2023, Netcore – Bliss Order (Exh.7) 6 of 8 18) Having not pleaded and cleared said fact, then, at this stage, it is held that, V-RESORTS (which placed the Orders) and Bliss Inns (defendant, from whom plaintiff is seeking recovery) are different entities. 19) So, against Orders placed by V-RESORTS, plaintiff is seeking recovery from different entity i.e. Bliss Inns. Unless proved that they are one entity or subsidiary of other, plaintiff cannot recover debt of one company from other. On this ground itself, plaintiff cannot be granted Summons for Judgment. E-mail address : 20) Plaintiff claimed that, all Orders were placed from email ID as sarika.srivastava@vresorts.in. Plaintiff has filed the Suit against Bliss Inns. In that backdrop, it is not case of plaintiff that, defendant Bliss Inns is using the mail IDs with …...vresort.in. Plaintiff also did not come with pleading that, sarika.srivastava@vresorts.in is official mail id of defendant Bliss Inns. So, on that ground also, Orders placed from vresort.in, cannot be enforced by plaintiff against defendant Bliss Inns. Proposal : 21) Plaintiff has filed the Purchase Orders at Page No. 20 to No. 28. These emails are from sarika.srivastava@vresorts.in i.e. from Sarika, wherein, she stated as follows : We have pleasure in informing you that, your proposal for affiliate email marketing has been accepted subject to the terms and conditions mentioned below. In E-mails, Sarika is using words as, your proposal….. has been accepted. It means, proposal of providing services is initiated from plaintiff and thereafter it was accepted by defendant. -- 6 of 8 -- SJ No.100169 / 2023, Netcore – Bliss Order (Exh.7) 7 of 8 22) Further, in Para No. 3 of Plaint, plaintiff pleaded as follows : 3. The Plaintiff states that pursuant to the Defendant’s requirement, Plaintiff’s proposal for rendering its Affiliate Marketing services to the Defendant was accepted by the Defendant. ….. This pleading also points that, plaintiff placed the proposals, which were accepted by defendant. 23) It is not case of plaintiff that, those proposals were by oral communication. Therefore, it is held that, said proposals must be by way of, emails or letters. However, plaintiff has not pleaded and disclosed details about these proposals as to, on what date plaintiff placed those proposals, through which mode (email, fax) said proposal was made with the defendant. List of documents filed by the plaintiff at Page No. 17 to No. 19, of the Plaint also do not have copies of such proposal. 24) Plaintiff has also not given explanation as to why details of said proposal are not pleaded. Absence of details of proposal and absence of explanation as to why said details are not pleaded, supports the defense regarding probable fraud. Conclusion : 25) Plaintiff has not disclosed proposals, which were initiated from plaintiff. Plaintiff has not disclosed relationship between V- RESORTS (to whom plaintiff provided alleged services) and defendant Bliss Inns (from whom, plaintiff is seeking recovery). Thereby, defendant has successfully established substantial defenses and thus, triable issues. In that backdrop, plaintiff cannot be granted Summons for Judgment. At the same time, defendant Bliss Inns cannot be -- 7 of 8 -- SJ No.100169 / 2023, Netcore – Bliss Order (Exh.7) 8 of 8 imposed with any condition, so as to file Written Statement. 26) For these reasons, defendant will have to be granted unconditional leave. Therefore, the Points are so answered and Summons for Judgment is disposed off, by following Order : ORDER 1. Application at Exh. 12, is filed. 2. Summons for Judgment No. 100169 / 2023, is dismissed. 3. Unconditional Leave is granted to defendant to defend the Suit. 4. Defendant shall file its Written Statement within 30 days from the date of this Order. 5. If defendant fails to file Written Statement within stipulated 30 days, then Suit shall proceed without Written Statement. Accordingly, plaintiff will be entitled to take appropriate steps, as per rules. 6. Proceeding of Summons for Judgment No. 100169 of 2023 is closed. 7. Order pronounced in Open Court. 8. Plaintiff be informed about their right to challenge this Order and limitation for same. 9. Record of Summons for Judgment shall be part of Commercial Summary Suit No. 100438 / 2022. Mumbai Dated : 24.07.2024 (Vijay S. Hingne) Additional District Judge, Court Room No.31 - Commercial Court, City Civil & Sessions Court, Mazgaon, Greater Mumbai Visit ecourts.gov.in for updates or download mobile app “eCourts Services” from Android or iOS -- 8 of 8 --
