REPORTABLE

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION

CIVIL APPEAL NO. OF 2010

(Arising out of Special Leave Petition (C) No.27615/08)

ORYX Fisheries Private Limited

...Appellant(s)

- Versus -

Union of India and others

...Respondent(s)

J U D G M E N T

GANGULY, J.

1.

Leave granted.

2.

The appellant, a Private Limited Company

engaged in the production, procurement and

processing and export of sea-foods, and

other related products, agreed to supply MT

1

of pealed and undeveined (PUD) shrimps to

one Cascade Marine Foods LLC (hereinafter

referred to as, “Cascade”}, a company

incorporated under the relevant laws of UAE

at Sharjah. The Purchase Contract dated

26.09.2006, was signed by Pristine Food

Inc., a local agent of Cascade, and as per

the details of the contract, the PUD

Shrimps were to be Block frozen-with

mandatory labels on both individual block

and master carton and the destination was

Sharjah, UAE. By a subsequent amendment

dated 19.10.2006 to the purchase contract,

the PUD quantity was increased to a total

of 24 MT without changing other terms of

the purchase contract. Prior to the

dispatch of the consignment, inspection was

carried

out

by

Sakson

Fisheries

Consultants, local agents of Cascade, on

18.10.2006, whereby it was found that there

was no bad odour. Rather there was a

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fairly fresh smell and the quality of the

consignment was found to be satisfactory.

3.

On 25.10.2006, the consignment was

dispatched from Mumbai, which arrived at

Sharjah Port on 02.11.2006 via Delivery

Order, dated 06.11.2006. The Director of

Customs, Sharjah, was requested to

authorize the release of the PUD Shrimps to

Cascade. Following this, on 07.11.2006

Sharjah Customs, vide its Customs

Declaration Form, stated that the

consignment was not to be released before

Health Inspection. It appears from the

facts that the customs and health

authorities of UAE, had inspected the PUD

Shrimps’ quality and quantity and they were

satisfied that it was fit for human

consumption.

The

health

authorities

resealed the consignment and numbered it as

MSLA 18 J 550015, as against the original

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seal no. YME 166813. It appears from the

Store Receipt voucher No. 9232 dated

12.11.2006 of Cascade, the buyer, that they

had taken possession of the consignment.

After a lapse of more than 10 days, Cascade

alleged that the PUD Shrimp was of very

poor quality as it transpired from their

analysis report dated 21.11.06.

4.

As per the minutes of the meeting held on

17.12.2006 in the office of Cascade at

Sharjah which was attended by Mr. S.D.

Puranik

and

Mr.

P.R.

Sakthivel,

respectively Managing Director and Director

Marketing of the appellant and Mr. Vijay

Paranjape, Group QA Manager Al-Kabeer and

Ajit Pillai, General Manager, Cascade

Marine Foods LLC, the appellant agreed to

compensate Cascade to the extent of the

value of the defective goods and the

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minutes of the meeting were signed by all

the aforementioned individuals.

5.

It has been mentioned in the note attached

to the letter dated 03.09.2007 sent by

Cascade to the Secretary, Ministry of

Commerce, Government of India that Cascade

was asked by the appellant on 21.12.2006 to

issue necessary samples to Mr. Celestine of

M/s Starfish Trading FZE and several

samples were handed over to him. The fact

that the samples were handed over to M/s

Starfish Trading FZE has been disputed

because the appellant’s stand before this

Court was that Cascade failed to hand-over

the necessary samples to the said M/s

Starfish Trading FZE.

6.

The appellant called upon Cascade to hand

over the consignment to one Freshly Frozen

Foods LLC and as a result of that 1081

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cartons of goods were delivered to the col