INDIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Gautam Bhatikar, Deeksha Dev Singh and Isha Patil, Phoenix Legal
no privity of contract between it and the bun - ker supplier. The court also held that the bunker supplier was a maritime claimant under Section 4 of the Act and could only arrest a ship if it were satisfied that the owner was liable for the supply. During the period of the charter, the charterer would have the authority to bind the vessel by ordering necessaries, as they are responsible for the ship under the charterparty/contract of char - ter. The authority of the charter is further dictated based on the terms mentioned in the agreement signed by them. 4.5 Arresting a Vessel A claimant is required to satisfy the following formalities in order to make an application for arrest: • a vakalatnama (note of appearance) is required to be executed in favour of the law - yer; • a power of attorney or board resolution and copies of other documents relied upon in support of the claim are required to be filed in court (copies would suffice at the time of filing the arrest application, but the original docu - ments must be produced in court when the matter goes to trial); • if a power of attorney is issued in a foreign country, it will have to be notarised and legal - ised as per the laws applicable in that country – since India is a signatory to the Apostille Convention (Hague Convention), apostilled documents are also accepted by courts; • if there are any affidavits affirmed by any person based outside India, they will need to be notarised and legalised or apostilled in the home country, as per the laws applicable in that country; • if any of the formalities cannot be complied with, owing to limited time, an undertaking
can be given to the court that compliance with the pending formalities shall be com - pleted within a specific time, which the court normally accepts; • at present, the documents can be filed elec - tronically in certain jurisdictions (High Courts), but only for a limited period, following which physical copies will have to be filed before the respective court; • once all documents are made available, the arrest application can be made within 24 hours; and • the application for arrest is required to be made to the admiralty court of the coastal state in whose jurisdiction the vessel is found. The most important requirement for ship arrest is that the claimant needs to issue a power of attorney in favour of local attorneys other than the lawyers instructed, who will have the power to sign all the necessary court documents. The attorney then has to sign a vakalatnama (note of appearance) authorising a lawyer to act, appear and plead the case in court on behalf of the claimant. At the time of filing the arrest applica - tion, copies of the documents would suffice, but original documents are required to be produced in court when the matter goes to trial. A substantive suit is required to be filed in India, and therefore all documents in support or defence of the case are to be annexed or exhib - ited to the pleadings. If the documents are not in the English language, they will need to be offi - cially translated and the official translation will have to be filed along with the document. The arresting party need not provide any coun - ter-security at the time of filing for the arrest. Such a party will have to provide an undertak - ing on an affidavit at the time of filing the suit and application for arrest. However, the court
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