The Court emphasized the need for restraint in exercising the power under Article 227 and the basic right of institution of a suit.

ORDER :

1. The present Civil Revision Petition has been instituted to strike off the plaint in O.S. No. 745 of 2022 on the file of the Additional District Munsif Court, Coimbatore.

2. The petitioner is the Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation Ltd. and the first defendant in the suit instituted by the first respondent in the present Civil Revision Petition.

3. The first respondent herein instituted a suit for the relief to grant a decree of permanent injunction in favour of the plaintiff by restraining the defendants, their men, agents, subordinates or any other authorities connected therewith, their officials from interfering with the plaintiff's operation and business interests, in any manner, including from terminating or modifying the agreements entered into between defendants 1 to 3 for transportation of essential food commodities pursuant to the proceedings No. MT9/47397/2019 dated 07.01.2020 issued by the first defendant and work orders dated 23.01.2020 and 19.01.2020 issued by the defendants 2 and 3 to the plaintiff under Clause 9 of the tender conditions, grant a decree of permanent injunction restraining the first defendant from floating any tenders for selection of any transport contractors including the fourth defendant for the purpose of transportation of food materials covered under the contract entered into between the defendants 1 to 3 in view of the adverse reaction on the plaintiff till the end of the five years contract period and for award of costs.

4. The learned Senior Counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner mainly contended that the plaintiff is an alien to the contract entered into between the first defendant and the defendants 2 and 3. The first defendant has not entered into any contract with the plaintiff and thus the suit against the revision petitioner is not entertainable.

5. To substantiate the said contention, the learned Senior Counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner drew the attention of this Court with reference to the terms and conditions agreed between the parties in the contract entered into between the revision petitioner and the defendants 2 and 3 in the suit. Even as per the terms and conditions of contract, the contract is terminable and therefore, the suit is not maintainable and thus the suit filed by the first respondent is to be strike off.

6. The learned Senior Counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner is of an opinion that the power under Article 227 of the Constitution of India is to be exercised whenever there is an abuse of process.

7. In the present case, the revision petitioner has unnecessarily been dragged into the civil litigation and because of that the Corporation is suffering huge monetary loss and an order of interim injunction was granted and the revision petitioner has already filed the counter-statement. Under these circumstances, the plaint is to be strike off as it is an abuse of process against the revision petitioner-Corporation.

8. It is further contended that in respect of the disputes between the revision petitioner and the defendants 2 and 3, Arbitration Clause has been agreed between the parties and thus the suit cannot be entertained in any circumstances.

9. The learned Senior Counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner referred the findings of the Trial Court in the interim order granted on 15.07.2022, wherein the Trial Court made an observation that “the first respondent/defendant is the only authority engaged in the distribution of the essential commodities through Public Distribution System. Copy of the Circular issued by the Department of Food and Public Distribution is produced as Document No. 2. The second and third respondents/defendants are also operating the business activities either directly or indirectly through the reliable Transporters like the petitioner/plaintiff to execute the work contract as per the agreement with the first respondent/ defendant. Copy of the tender for movement of transportation stocks issued by the first resp