Supreme Court appoints former CJI DY Chandrachud as mediator in Euro Pratik-Geomin dispute

The Supreme Court on September 19 appointed former Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud as mediator in the commercial dispute between Euro Pratik Ispat (India) Pvt. Ltd. and Geomin Industries Pvt. Ltd. concerning 1.7 lakh metric tonnes of iron ore.

The Bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and KV Viswanathan said that the litigation between the two parties has become “murkier and murkier” with each passing stage and suggested mediation before a former judge of the apex court.

Both Senior Advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Gopal Subramanium, appearing for Euro Pratik and Geomin respectively, agreed to the proposal.

The order came in an appeal filed by Euro Pratik against an August 11 decision of the Madhya Pradesh High Court at Jabalpur. The High Court had restored Geomin’s suit, which had earlier been rejected by the commercial court for non-compliance with Section 12A of the Commercial Courts Act, 2015.

Section 12A provides that a suit which does not contemplate any urgent interim relief shall not be instituted unless the plaintiff exhausts the remedy of pre-institution mediation.

The High Court had observed that the suit sought urgent interim relief and hence, Section 12A was inapplicable. Hence, it had restrained Euro Pratik from transporting or selling the disputed iron ore until the injunction plea under Order 39 Rules 1 and 2 CPC was decided.

Euro Pratik approached the Supreme Court against this order of the High Court.

After hearing both sides, the apex court appointed Justice Chandrachud as mediator and directed him to file a report at the earliest. His fees are to be fixed in consultation with the parties.

During the mediation, the parties should maintain status quo, the Court ordered.

It further stayed all ongoing civil and criminal proceedings between them until the mediator’s report is received.

The case will be listed again after eight weeks for further directions.

Senior Advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi and advocates Diwakar Maheshwari, Edupuganti Shreyas and Karan Bhootra appeared for Euro Pratik.

Senior Advocate Gopal Subramanium and advocates Siddhartha Shukla, Amit Sharma, Shamila Iram Fatima, Vishal Sinha, Raghav Kohli and Gauri Subramanium appeared for Geomin.

[Read Order]