[2025] 2 S.C.R. 701 : 2025 INSC 257

JSW Steel Ltd. v.

The Board of Trustees of the Mumbai Port Trust Mumbai & Ors.

(Civil Appeal No. 3169 of 2025)

14 February 2025

[Ahsanuddin Amanullah* and Prashant Kumar Mishra,* JJ.]

Issue for Consideration

Issue arose as regards the correctness of the order passed by the High Court by which it allowed respondent no.1 to withdraw the amount deposited in the court by the appellant and disposed of the writ petition as being infructuous.

Headnotes†

Ports Act, 1908 - s.14 - Raising or removal of wreck impeding navigation within limits of port - Appellant called upon to deposit a sum of Rs.70 lakhs for removal of wreck of a barge belonging to respondent no.3 which capsized while ferrying iron ore from the ship of the appellant to the port concerned - Writ petition by the appellant praying for prohibiting the respondents from insisting upon the appellant to remove the wreck of the barge and to deposit any amount as costs of such wreck - Case of the appellant that the Act places liability on the owner of the vessel concerned and, the owner of the vessel was respondent no.3 and not the appellant - High Court allowed respondent no.1-Mumbai Port Trust to withdraw the amount deposited in the court by the appellant and disposed of the petition as being infructuous - Sustainability:

Held: Not sustainable - The way the High Court approached the issue appears to be erroneous since the lis was very much alive, as a pure question of law stood raised was on whom the liability for clearing the wreckage was to be fastened - Impugned order did not deal with this fundamental issue - When on a purely legal issue, the appellant raised a legal objection, and also deposited the

* Author

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amount demanded by respondent no.1 in the High Court, the High Court was required to answer the question of law - No exercise was required involving disputed factual questions - Efflux of time is a result of systemic delay, not due to any laches on the part of the appellant - Impugned order set aside - Matter remanded back to High Court to dispose it expeditiously - Constitution of India - Art. 226. [Paras 6-9]

Case Law Cited

Tirupati Balaji Developers (P) Ltd. v. State of Bihar [2004] Supp. 1 SCR 494 : (2004) 5 SCC 1; B S Hari Commandant v. Union of India [2023] 3 SCR 431 : (2023) 13 SCC 779; Union Territory of Ladakh v. Jammu and Kashmir National Conference [2023] 12 SCR 68 : 2023 SCC OnLine SC 1140 - relied on.

List of Acts

Ports Act, 1908.

List of Keywords

Wreck of barge; Removal of wreck; Capsized barge; Deputy conservator; Owner of the vessel; Liability for the wreckage; Writ petition becoming infructuous; Pure question of law; Efflux of time; Systematic delay.

Case Arising From

CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION: Civil Appeal No. 3169 of 2025

From the Judgment and Order dated 13.08.2021 of the High Court of Judicature at Bombay in WP No. 2127 of 1996

Appearances for Parties

Advs. for the Appellant: Huzefa Ahmadi, Sr. Adv., Mahesh Agarwal, Rishi Agrawala, Ms. Aanchal Mullick, Ms. Kamakshi Sehgal, Rohan Sharma, E. C. Agrawala.

Advs. for the Respondents: Abhishek Puri, Ms. Surbhi Gupta, Sahil Grewal, Mrs. Reeta Dewan Puri, P. N. Puri, Apoorv Shukla, Puneet Chahar, Ms. Prabhleen A. Shukla.


Judgment / Order of the Supreme Court

Order

Ahsanuddin Amanullah and Prashant Kumar Mishra, JJ.

Leave granted. Heard learned senior counsel/counsel for the parties.

BACKGROUND:

The appellant is aggrieved by the Impugned Order, by which Writ Petition No.2127/1996 filed by it before the High Court was disposed of. The High Court noted that the said writ petition principally sought the following reliefs:

'(a) That this Hon'ble Court be pleased to issue a Writ of prohibition or a writ in the nature of prohibition or any other appropriate writ, order or direction under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, prohibiting the Respondents from insisting upon the Petitioners to remove the wreck of SATYAM or take any steps in that behalf and/or to deposit any amounts as costs of such wreck removal;

(b) For a permanent injunction restraining the Respondents, their servants and agents from taking any steps against the Petitioners and preventing the Petitioners from availing of the services of the Mumbai Port Trust and its waters for the purpose of safely transitting their barges containing iron ore being moved from the mother vessel to Dharamtar jetty;'

The writ petition has been disposed of by the High Court in the following terms:

'(i) We permit the Respondent No.1 Mumbai Port Trust to withdraw the amount deposited in this Court by the Petitioner alongwith accrued interest without prejudice to the rights and contentions of the parties;

(ii) Inasmuch there are disputed facts involved and since the Petition is now rendered infructuous, it could be open for the Petitioner to file a suit against the Respondents for refund/recovery of Rs.70,00,000/- alongwith accrued interest, if so advised. The remedies of the Respondent

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No.1 Mumbai Port Trust to recover further amounts, if any, are also kept open;

(iii) The Writ Petition and the Notice of Motion are disposed of in the aforesaid terms. There shall be no order as to costs.'

SUBMISSIONS:

Learned senior counsel for the appellant submits that the crux of the issue is as to whether the appellant is liable to pay the charges for removal of the wreck of a barge ('Satyam') belonging to respondent no.3 (M/s Shivam Engineers) which capsized while ferrying iron ore from the ship of the appellant to the port concerned. Learned counsel drew the attention of this Court to the Notice/Communication dated 19.04.1995 issued by the then Deputy Conservator of respondent no.1, which specifically states that power under Section 14(1)1 of the Indian Ports Act, 19082 was being exercised and the appellant (in its then avatar as 'M/s Nippon Denro Ispat Ltd.') was called upon 'to deposit a sum Rs.70 lakhs3 as adequate security to ensure that the said wreck has been raised or removed within the stipulated period'.4 It was submitted that though the appellant had deposited the amount, the question was as to whether it was liable since Section 14(1) of the Act places liability on the owner of the vessel concerned and, admittedly, in the present position, the owner of the vessel was respondent no.3 and not the appellant. It was further

1 '14. Raising or removal of wreck impeding navigation within limits of port.-(1) If any vessel is wrecked, standard or sunk in any port in such a manner as to impede or likely to impede any navigation thereof, the conservator shall give notice to the owner of the vessel to raise, remove or destroy the vessel within such period as may be specified in the notice and to furnish such adequate security to the satisfaction of the conservator to ensure that the vessel shall be raised, removed or destroyed within the said period:

Provided that the conservator may extend such period to such further period as he may consider necessary having regard to the circumstances of such case and the extent of its impediment to navigation.

xxx'

2 Hereinafter referred to as the 'Act'.

3 Under Section 14(3) of the Act, which reads as under:

'(3) The expenses and further sum aforesaid shall be payable to the conservator out of the sale-proceeds of the property, and the balance shall be paid to the person entitled to the property recovered, or, if no such person appears and claims the balance, shall be held in deposit for payment, without interest, to any person thereafter establishing his right thereto:

Provided that the person makes his claim within three years from the date of the sale.'

4 The stipulated period was 30 days.


contended that the High Court disposed of the writ petition on the erroneous presumption that it has become infructuous and that the parties (appellant and respondent no.1 inter-se) have the remedy to recover further amount(s), which was kept open. It was submitted that once the law is clear as to on whom the liability for the wreckage or its removal lies, the appellant could not be saddled with the cost therefor. Lastly, it was urged that the further direction in favour of respondent no.1 to encash Rs.70 lakhs (alongwith accrued interest), deposited by the appellant pursuant to earlier order(s) of the High Court, is totally unjustified in law.

Per contra, learned counsel for respondent no.1 submits that the High Court has merely closed the issue as 20 years had passed. It was submitted that the wreckage has already been cleared. Learned counsel also advanced that the right of the appellant has been safeguarded, inasmuch as, it has the right to move a suit, where the dues, if any, against the parties concerned can be thrashed out.

DECISION:

Having considered the matter, we find merit in the submissions put forth by the appellant. The way the High Court approached the issue appears to be erroneous for the simple reason that the lis was very much alive, as a pure question of law stood raised i.e., on whom the liability for clearing the wreckage was to be fastened. The Impugned Order has not dealt with this fundamental issue. When on a purely legal issue, the appellant raised a legal objection, and also deposited the amount demanded by respondent no.1 in the High Court, in our considered view, the High Court was required to answer the question of law. In this analysis, no exercise was required involving disputed factual questions. Moreover, the efflux of time is a result of systemic delay, not due to any laches on the part of the appellant.

Our view on the aspects of (a) lapse of time alone not being a ground to close the matter, and (b) adjudicating a petition under Article 226 when it does not really involve a disputed factual setting, finds support from the decisions of this Court, extracted below:

B S Hari Commandant v Union of India, (2023) 13 SCC 779:

'51. Article 226 of the Constitution is a succour to remedy injustice, and any limit on exercise of such power, is

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only self-imposed. Gainful reference can be made to, amongst others, A.V. Venkateswaran v. Ramchand Sobhraj Wadhwani [A.V. Venkateswaran v. Ramchand Sobhraj Wadhwani, 1961 SCC OnLine SC 16: (1962) 1 SCR 753: AIR 1961 SC 1506] and U.P. State Sugar Corpn. Ltd. v.

Kamal Swaroop Tandon [U.P. State Sugar Corpn. Ltd. v.

Kamal Swaroop Tandon, (2008) 2 SCC 41: (2008) 1 SCC (L&S) 352]. The High Courts, under the constitutional scheme, are endowed with the ability to issue prerogative writs to safeguard rights of citizens. For exactly this reason, this Court has never laid down any straitjacket principles that can be said to have "cribbed, cabined and confined" [to borrow the term employed by the Hon. Bhagwati, J. (as he then was) in E.P. Royappa v. State of T.N. [E.P.

Royappa v. State of T.N., (1974) 4 SCC 3 : 1974 SCC (L&S) 165] ], the extraordinary powers vested under Articles 226 or 227 of the Constitution. Adjudged on the anvil of Nawab Shaqafath Ali Khan [Nawab Shaqafath Ali Khan v.

Nawab Imdad Jah Bahadur, (2009) 5 SCC 162: (2009) 2 SCC (Civ) 421], this was a fit case for the High Court to have examined the matter threadbare, more so, when it did not involve navigating a factual minefield.'

(emphasis supplied)

Union Territory of Ladakh v Jammu and Kashmir National Conference, 2023 SCC OnLine SC 1140:

'32. The Court would categorically emphasize that no litigant should have even an iota of doubt or an impression (rather, a misimpression) that just because of systemic delay or the matter not being taken up by the Courts resulting in efflux of time the cause would be defeated, and the Court would be rendered helpless to ensure justice to the party concerned…'

(emphasis supplied)

In the above circumstances, we are unable to sustain the order impugned. Accordingly, the same is set aside. WP No.2127/1996 is revived. The matter is remanded to the High Court to consider all


issues on merits as raised in the writ petition. As the monies deposited by the appellant are stated to have already been withdrawn by respondent no.1, were the appellant to eventually succeed in the writ petition, the appellant would be suitably compensated on this score.

Having regard to the fact that the writ petition is of the year 1996, we request the High Court to give priority to the matter and dispose it of as expeditiously as possible. Our request is to be construed in line with Tirupati Balaji Developers (P) Ltd. v State of Bihar, (2004) 5 SCC 1. Parties are not precluded from raising any question(s) of law and fact.

10. The appeal stands allowed in the afore-mentioned terms.

11. I.A. Diary No.40046/2024 (seeking impleadment) stands disposed of with the observation that it shall be open to the applicant/proposed respondent to make such prayer before the High Court, which may consider the same as per law. Remaining I.A.s stand closed forthwith, in view of the appeal itself being allowed.

Result of the case: Appeal allowed.

†Headnotes prepared by: Nidhi Jain