Court sets aside FIR, injunction: L&T Metro

HYDERABAD: L&T Metro Rail (Hyderabad) Ltd filed two appeals in the Telangana High Court urging it to set aside an Injunction which was issued by the Civil Court and also a direction given by a single judge of the High court to register an FIR against it.

The case pertained to a complaint filed by Urban Asia Restaurants Hotels Private Ltd which charged L&T Metro Rail with preventing it from setting up a food court at Hi-Tec City Metro mall at Madhpur.

The appeal passed against the Injunction order, L&T said the civil court had passed this order without any authority of law. No injunction could be granted under section 20(A) of the Specific Relief Act, 1963, in a contract involving an infrastructure project, it contended and said the trial court had failed to see that its injunction would actually delay the main project.

Accordingly, the supreme court had laid down clear guidelines for trial courts to exercise powers under section 9 of the Arbitration of Conciliation Act, 1996, but the civil court order violated these guidelines, L&T said. It informed the high court that the sub-license agreement it had entered into with Urban Asia on December 13, 2018, had terminated on January 28 this year. "By the time the civil court had granted an injunction to Urban Asia, it was not in possession of space in the mall," L&T's legal head Chandrachud Durian Paliwal argued.

Urban Asia had defaulted in making payments towards licence fee for November and December 2018 and January 2019, he said. " Hence, the agreement with the food court firm was terminated after giving them a one month's notice on January 28. They accepted it and even vacated the space," Paliwal said.

Refuting these contentions, Urban Asia had filed a contempt plea in the civil court urging it to take action against L&T officials for violating the court orders. "We sought implementation of the injunction order through police protection as the officials turned to act in a high handed manner. said Urban Asia counsel Dharmesh DK Jaiswal.