The Madras High Court has cleared the way for Advantage Strategic Consulting, a private firm, to proceed with a defamation suit against former Union Law Minister Subramanian Swamy in the High Court of Singapore. The court has set aside an injunction granted against the firm in 2014, citing lack of jurisdiction as the reason behind the current order.
The division bench of Justices SS Sundar and PB Balaji has stated, “In view of our above findings on all the issues, we are of the view that there is no prima facie case in favour of the 1st respondent/plaintiff (Swamy) to grant any interim order as this Court has no jurisdiction to grant anti suit injunction restraining a foreign company from prosecuting the defamation suit in a foreign country. We find balance of convenience in favour of the appellant/2nd defendant (Advantage Strategic)”.
The judges said that the earlier single judge’s verdict was based on the fact that the appellant company is a subsidiary of Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Limited based in Chennai.
Citing the Supreme Court’s order, the Madras HC said that despite being fully owned by a parent or holding company, a subsidiary would not lose its identity as a separate legal entity.
“Therefore, we are convinced that the appellant, a foreign company, even though fully owned by the 1st defendant is not amenable to the jurisdiction of this court…The judgment of the learned single judge cannot be approved for the simple reason that he has simply presumed that the appellant is amenable to the jurisdiction of this court as it is a subsidiary of the 1st defendant, an Indian company,” the judgment added.
In the court, Dr. Subramanian Swamy appeared along with Advocate R Ravi. On behalf of Advantage Strategic, senior Advocate Satish Parasaran and Advocate Rahul Balaji have appeared.
