A First Merchants Pvt. Ltd vs Surendra Singh Bengani
2024 Latest Caselaw 258 Cal/2

Calcutta High Court

A First Merchants Pvt. Ltd vs Surendra Singh Bengani on 24 January, 2024

Author: Arindam Mukherjee

Bench: Arindam Mukherjee

ORDER SHEET
                                                                              OCD-8


                   IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA
                 ORDINARY ORIGINAL CIVIL JURISDICTION
                        (COMMERCIAL DIVISION)

                             IA No. GA/5/2023
                                     In
                               CS/248/2021
                       A FIRST MERCHANTS PVT. LTD.
                                  VERSUS
                        SURENDRA SINGH BENGANI


 BEFORE:
 The Hon'ble JUSTICE ARINDAM MUKHERJEE

Date: 24th January, 2024.

Appearance:

Mr. Ayan Dutta, Adv.

Mr. Bimalendu Das, Adv.

Mr. Shomrik Das, Adv.

For the plaintiff.

Mr. Rohit Banerjee, Adv.

Mr. Virendra Singh Bengani, Adv.

For the defendant.

The Court :- This is an application by the sole defendant for return of

the plaint for being presented in the appropriate Court.

The defendant says that going by the averments made in the plaint

the money, which is said to have been made over to the defendant by the

plaintiff, was on account of one time temporary accommodation loan. The

nomenclature of such transaction does not bring the same under any of the

clauses under Section 2(1)(c) of the Commercial Courts Act, 2015. The

transaction being the subject matter of the suit, therefore, is not a commercial

transaction and as such no suit can or could have been instituted in the

`Commercial Division' by the plaintiff against the defendant. The plaint,

therefore, should be returned for being presented before the appropriate Court.

The defendant has cited two judgments respectively reported in 2021

SCC OnLine Cal. 4240 (Ladymoon Towers Private Limited-Versus-

Mahendra Investment Advisors Private Limited) and 2023 SCC OnLine

Cal. 1965 (Santosh Kumar Bhadani-Versus-Om Prakash Agarwala). The

defendant also says that the ratio laid down in 2022 SCC OnLine Cal. 3010

(Venkatesh Vincom Private Limited-Versus- Spice of Joy, Multicuisine

Restaurant cum Bar and others) is not applicable as Venkatesh (supra)

considered a transaction of lending money by a Non-Banking Financial

Corporation (NBFC) who was carrying on the business of money lending and

had license for the same which is not a case with the present plaint.

The plaintiff commences its argument, but could not conclude the

same.

Let this matter appear on 12th February, 2024.

(ARINDAM MUKHERJEE, J.)

snn