1. This notice of motion is taken out by one Marine Engineering Diving Services (FZC) [hereinafter referred to as MEDS] on behalf of defendant vessel, for setting aside/recall of the order of arrest dated 1st June 2018 and releasing defendant vessel – Altus Uber from arrest.

2. Plaintiff had obtained an ex-parte order of arrest on 1st June 2018 from the vacation Judge. Defendant is an offshore supply vessel/ platform vessel flying the flag of Liberia and presently at Mumbai within the territorial waters of India and within admiralty jurisdiction of this Court. According to plaintiff, defendant vessel is owned by MEDS and MEDS has denied this fact. According to MEDS they are only the bareboat charterers of the vessel and the owner is someone else – Swordfish Shipco Limited.

3. Plaintiff has filed this admiralty suit, inter alia, for recovery of amount of USD 28,889,304/- which includes charter hire in the sum of USD 6,797,554/- and claim for capital value of a vessel in the sum of USD 22,061,750/- together with further interest and costs. It is plaintiff's case that plaintiff had entered into a bareboat charter-party dated 13th May 2015 (said bareboat charter-party) with the owners of defendant vessel and the owners of defendant vessel committed a breach thereof.

4. According to plaintiff, plaintiff is the owner of a motor vessel -Siem Marlin. By the said bareboat charter-party, plaintiff gave on bareboat charter m.v. Siem Marlin to MEDS for a firm period of five years with a purchase obligation at the end of the five years or a purchase option at the end of the first/second/third/fourth year from the date of delivery. According to plaintiff, MEDS was to take delivery of Siem Marlin between 25th September 2015 and 25th October 2015. It seems MEDS were to, prior to delivery of Siem Marlin furnish a bank guarantee for USD 4,000,000/- as guarantee for full performance of the obligations under the charter-party and this bank guarantee was to be furnished in between 10th September 2015 to 15th September 2015. As the bank guarantee was not furnished, the time to take delivery of Siem Marlin was extended to 8th November 2015 to 22nd November 2015. An addendum to the charter-party dated 13th May 2015 was entered into on 11th October 2015. Once again, it is plaintiff's case that MEDS did not honour its commitment and therefore, without prejudice to and whilst keeping all its rights and remedies under the bareboat charter alive, plaintiff and MEDS entered into a BIMCO supply time charter-party dated 7th November 2015. This charter-party was to come into effect only upon MEDS furnishing a bank guarantee for USD 2,000,000/-. It is stated that this charter-party was also breached by MEDS and therefore, plaintiff through its advocates' letter dated 26th January 2016, informed MEDS that it was in repudiatory breach of its obligation under the bareboat charter-party despite giving enough opportunities to rectify the breach and in view therefore, terminated the charter-party and in view thereof, plaintiff had no option but to accept MEDS – charterers repudiation and notified MEDS about bringing the charter-party to an end. Plaintiff also informed MEDS about steps plaintiff will be taking to mitigate their losses and finally invoked arbitration clause. The arbitration was invoked in April 2016. On 26th April 2016, plaintiff filed its statement of claim before the arbitral tribunal and copy was sent to MEDS. MEDS, by an email dated 17th May 2017 requested for extension of time till mid July 2017 to submit their response/defence to plaintiff's claim, which was rejected and an extension of 14 days time was granted. Thereafter, from June 2017 negotiations were going on between the parties and no settlement was arrived at.

5. According to plaintiff, sometime in November 2017, plaintiff learnt that MEDS had purchased defendant vessel – Altus Uber. Plaintiff relied upon a Seaweb Report dated May 2018 which confirms that MEDS was the owner/charter