Prathiba M. Singh, J.

1. The Plaintiff, Mr. Deepayan Mohanty (hereinafter ‘Plaintiff’) has filed the present suit under Order XXXVII CPC seeking recovery of a sum of Rs. 3,25,56,496/- along with interest against the Defendants which are the Cargill Group of Companies (hereinafter together referred as ‘Cargill). Cargill India Pvt. Ltd (Defendant No. 1) is the Indian subsidiary of the Cargill Group. The Plaintiff was employed in Defendant no.1 and was reporting to Cargill, TSF Asia Pvt. Ltd based in Singapore (Defendant No. 3), which is in turn a part of the Cargill Financial Services Company, a company incorporated in Delware, USA (Defendant No. 2).

2. The Plaintiff joined Bharat Cargill Holdings Pvt. Ltd. in November, 1996 and was transferred to Cargill India Pvt. Ltd in 1997. He was drawing his salary from the Indian company i.e. Defendant No.1. Within the Cargill Group, the Plaintiff belonged to a business unit called Trade and Structured Finance (TSF business) and was looking after the business of the group in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. He was reporting to the head of the TSF business for Asia and Europe, who was employed by the Singapore Company, who in turn reported to the global head of TSF business based in the U.S. working in Defendant No. 2.

3. According to the plaint, in view of the business generated by the TSF unit, which was headed by the Plaintiff, he was awarded a bonus of USD 510,000 for the year 2007-08. The award of the said bonus was communicated to him by an internal memo dated 24th July, 2008. The award was split 50-50. 50% comprised a cash award, which was paid to the Plaintiff and 50% was retained as a deferred incentive award. USD 255,000 was paid to the Plaintiff at the relevant time and the remaining was deferred over a period of three years and was to be given to him with interest.

4. Though the award was in U.S. dollars, the same was paid in Indian rupees and was reflected in the salary slip of the Plaintiff. During the time that the deferred incentives were yet to be paid by Cargill to the Plaintiff, he was awarded another incentive award for the fiscal year 2008-09. The bonus of USD 575,000 was awarded on 27th July, 2009 out of which USD 287,500 was the cash award and the balance USD 287,500 was the deferred incentive award.

5. According to the Plaintiff, the amounts which were awarded to him and stood vested in him were as follows:

“(a) USD 525,000 for the fiscal year 1st June, 2006 – 31st May, 2007;

(b) USD 510, 000 for the fiscal year 1st June, 2007 – 31st May, 2008; and

(c) USD 575,000 for the fiscal year 1st June, 2008 – 31st May, 2009.”

6. From the said amounts, 83.33% of the amount for 2006-07, 66.67% of the amount for 2007-08 and 50% of the amount for 2008-09 was paid and the balance remained outstanding. The balance, according to the Plaintiff, was USD 545,000 along with USD LIBOR (LIBOR or the London Interbank Offered Rate is a benchmark rate for short-term interest rates which is used by some of the leading banks of the world. It is used for pricing of interest rate swaps, currency rate swaps and mortgages.) + 1%.

7. The Plaintiff resigned from Defendant No.1 on 7th December, 2009 which was accepted on the same day and he was relieved from duty on 7th January, 2010. In January, 2012, when the Plaintiff approached the Defendants for payment of the balance incentive award, he was informed that he had to sign a statutory declaration as per the terms and conditions specified by the U.S/Singapore Company. He furnished the declaration on 24th January, 2012. On 8th February, 2012, he received an undated letter stating that upon review it was found that the Plaintiff did not comply with the terms and conditions of the incentive award and hence the payment was not liable to be made.

8. A legal notice dated 23rd May, 2012 was issued on behalf of the Plaintiff calling upon the Defendants