High Court of Bombay, Commercial Division (Somasekhar Sundaresan, J.), April 7, 2025 — Batch of nine petitions under Section 9 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 filed by Tata Motors Finance Limited against loan defaulters in respect of hypothecated commercial vehicles: Commercial Arbitration Petition Nos. 485, 378, 471, 782 and 457 of 2024, Nos. 43 and 24 of 2025, and (L) Nos. 32137 and 38546 of 2024. The operative order was passed in Commercial Arbitration Petition No. 485 of 2024 (Tata Motors Finance Ltd. v. Harendra Singh & Ors.), arising out of an Agreement dated August 24, 2019 containing an arbitration clause (Clause 21). The Respondents defaulted in servicing the loan; a notice was issued on July 22, 2024; the claimed dues were Rs. 1,81,77,615.87; and although served, the Respondents did not enter appearance. Finding that the subject-matter of the arbitration ran the risk of being dissipated and denuded, rendering the arbitration infructuous, the Court held a case was made out for ad-interim relief and granted reliefs in terms of prayer clauses (a) and (f): (i) an injunction restraining sale, alienation, transfer, parting with possession, encumbrance or creation of third-party rights over the hypothecated commercial vehicles and other movable/immovable properties pending the arbitration and until final execution of the Arbitral Award; and (ii) a direction to disclose on oath the current location of the hypothecated vehicles and to hand over peaceful possession to the Court Receiver, High Court, Bombay. The ad-interim reliefs were made applicable pending ex parte consideration of further interim relief by the Arbitral Tribunal to be constituted, with liberty to the Respondents to seek variation, alteration or vacation of the relief before the Tribunal. Liberty was granted to file the Section 11 application within one week of upload of the Order, and the Petition was directed to be listed with the Section 11 Application on April 28, 2025. In the remaining petitions notice was ordered, returnable April 28, 2025, with liberty for private service including electronic means and a service affidavit with tangible evidence of service.
