Madras High Court paves way for firm to proceed with defamation suit against Subramanian Swamy in Singapore High Court

The Madras High Court recently paved the way for trading firm Advantage Strategic Consulting to proceed with a defamation suit against former Union Law Minister Subramanian Swamy before the High Court of Singapore..In a judgment passed on April 18 this year, a Division Bench of Justices SS Sundar and PB Balaji set aside an injunction granted against the firm by a single-judge in 2014. The Court reasoned that it lacked the jurisdiction to grant an anti-suit injunction against a foreign company."In view of our above findings on all the issues, we are of the view that there is no prima facie case in favour of the 1st respondent/plaintiff (Swamy) to grant any interim order as this Court has no jurisdiction to grant anti suit injunction restraining a foreign company from prosecuting the defamation suit in a foreign country. We find balance of convenience in favour of the appellant/2nd defendant (Advantage Strategic)," the judgment stated..The Division Bench allowed two connected appeals filed by Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Limited's Singapore-based subsidiary company challenging the 2014 order of a single-judge bench. Through this order, the Court had initially granted interim injunction against the subsidiary firm and then made it absolute. It thus restrained the firm from proceeding with a defamation suit filed against Swamy before the High Court of Singapore for having named it in the Aircel Maxis scam.The firm had told the Court that in a press conference held in New Delhi in April 2012 in connection with the 2G spectrum case, Swamy had made an unverified reference to it, thus causing grave injury to its reputation..The Division Bench said that the single-judge had erred in granting the injunction just because the appellant firm happened to be a subsidiary of Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Limited based in Chennai. The Court further said the Supreme Court had held several times that a subsidiary must be considered as a distinct entity in relation to its transactions."Therefore, we are convinced that the appellant, a foreign company, even though fully owned by the 1st defendant is not amenable to the jurisdiction of this court...The judgment of the learned single judge cannot be approved for the simple reason that he has simply presumed that the appellant is amenable to the jurisdiction of this court as it is a subsidiary of the 1st defendant, an Indian company," it said. On the issue of jurisdiction, it noted,"This Court cannot decide whether the Singapore High Court has jurisdiction or 1st respondent is amenable to the jurisdiction of Singapore Court in a suit which is filed in a court which does not have inherent jurisdiction to decide the jurisdiction of a foreign Court.".Senior Advocate Satish Parasaran and Advocate Rahul Balaji appeared for Advantage Strategic.Dr Subramanian Swamy appeared in person along with Advocate R Ravi..[Read judgment]