ISLAMABAD: The Sindh High Court (SHC) has dismissed the civil suit of M/s SICPA, on the basis of out jurisdiction of the SHC, against the award of track and trace system contract granted to the M/s AJCL Consortium.
The SHC released an order (Suit No583 of 2021) on Friday.
According to the SHC order, the plaintiff/bidder (SICPA SA) filed civil suit application against the Federation of Pakistan through Secretary Revenue (defendant No1), FBR (defendant No2), Licensing Committee (defendant No3), Grievance Redressal Committee (GRC) (defendant No4), and AJCL Private Limited (defendant No5), and challenged the order dated 03.03.2021passed by the Grievance Redressal Committee constituted by the FBR and the conduct of the bidding process for the award of license to AJCL for a trace and track System (T&T System) for tobacco products, cement, sugar and fertilisers.
In this case, evidently all defendants (federation and four others) are carrying on their business in Islamabad and cause of action, wholly and in part had arisen to the plaintiff within the territorial jurisdiction of Islamabad; therefore, the plea of the counsel for the plaintiff that plaintiff's subsidiary company is carrying on its business in Karachi, submitted bid from Karachi, received impugned order in Karachi has no force, the SHC said.
In several cases decided by the SHC, it had already been settled that this Court at Karachi exercises original civil jurisdiction exclusively within territorial limits of Karachi and if cause of action has been arisen within the territorial limits of Karachi, civil original jurisdiction of this Court at Karachi can be invoked.
In instant suit, no doubt that the cause of action had been arisen within the territorial limits of Islamabad as main relief, which is being sought by the plaintiff (the SICPA) in instant suit is related with legality and process of bidding to award license to the company, as such no cause of action can be claimed to have accrued to the plaintiff within the territorial jurisdiction of this court. No cause of action has ever been arisen to the plaintiff within the jurisdiction of this Court, hence, this Court has no territorial jurisdiction to pass any judgment and decree against the defendants, therefore, the application is hereby returned under order VII Rule 10 CPC, 1908 for presenting it before a Court of competent jurisdiction, if plaintiff desires so. A tax expert told Business Recorder that after this order, the stay order issued by the same court against the T&T System implementation has also been rendered ineffective.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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