The Union Ministry of External Affairs, on June 4, gave permission to a French Company, Ultraconfidentiel Design Private Limited to sue Spanish Embassy in India for recovery of Rs. 7.08 lakh along with interest for services rendered by the company.

Permission was granted to Pierre Arnaud Cassin, Managing Director of the company, under Section 86 of the Code of Civil Procedure (CPC) which state that suits against foreign States, rulers, envoys or ambassadors can be instituted only with the consent of the Central government.

The French company is engaged in providing global design concepts for commercial spaces and global turnkey projects for conceptual design to execution at site.

In 2018, the Embassy of Spain had engaged Ultraconfidentiel to construct a new security centre and public washroom, guard hut, changing of metal gates and internal doors in its office. In 2019, the company raised an invoice for the design fee amounting to Rs. 7,08,000 which was not paid.

Ultraconfidentiel then sent a legal to the Spanish Embassy seeking outstanding payment but there was no response from the Embassy.

Subsequent efforts by Ultraconfidentiel to get the payment proved futile with the embassy stating that the project by Ultraconfidentiel did not comply with the local regulations and will need additional permissions.

Ultraconfidentiel, however, maintained that the scope of work did not include getting necessary approvals from the regulatory authorities.

It then sought permission from the Ministry of External Affairs to proceed against Spanish Embassy in accordance with law to recover outstanding payment along with interest in addition to damages for breach of contract.

With the permission having been granted, the company will now be moving competent court and will be represented by advocate Siddharth Batra.