A SwissMarine Inc bulker caught up a demurrage dispute between a Dubai-based commodities trader and an Indian rice producer has been released from arrest by the Gujarat High Court.
The arrest warrant on the Greek shipowner’s 63,600-dwt bulker Clear Sky (built 2014) was withdrawn late on Wednesday evening at the request Commodity Care General Trading, the plaintiff in the case, which told the court that it had agreed to settle the dispute via other legal means.
The ship was set free without the need for its owner to supply any form of cash security.
Commodity Care’s move to withdraw its arrest on the Clear Sky came shortly after lawyers representing Shree Gauri Rice Mill, the second defendant in the case, filed its defence affidavit with the court claiming it was not the charterer of the Clear Sky and therefore the vessel could not be deemed an associated vessel in its dispute with Commodity Care.
Shree Gauri, represented by lawyer Shashank Agrawal of SSA Legal and counsel Parth Contractor, had filed a motion to vacate the arrest on Tuesday, claiming that the arrest of the Clear Sky was wrongful, made under the presumption by Commodity Care that it was the charterer.
The Clear Sky, Shree Gauri claimed, is chartered by Athens-based SwissMarine to Propel Shipping of Singapore, which in turn chartered it to a Turkish company that is performing the voyage on which the rice is to be carried as paid freight.
Shree Gauri said its role was purely that of an exporter that had contracted with an Indian shipper to transport 2,500 tonnes of bagged rice to Algiers and therefore it did not have any contract with the charterers of the Clear Sky, nor its owners or managers.
Shree Gauri argued that Commodity Care’s legal action against the Clear Sky was illegal and impermissible as it did not fall within the ambit of India’s Admiralty (Jurisdiction and Settlement of Maritime Claims) Act, 2017, which stipulates that such proceedings can only be initiated against the owner of the vessel, or its demise charterer, manager or operator.
Commodity Care, Shree Gauri alleged, had told the court it was the charterer of the ship without providing any documentary evidence showing this was the case.
“This statement, which is the basis of invocation of the admiralty jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, is wholly incorrect and appears to have been deliberately made solely with a view to mislead this Honourable Court, so as to seek arrest of the vessel,” the company said.
The Clear Sky was loading in the India’s Deendayal Port at the time of its arrest on Friday 5 January.
TradeWinds reported on Wednesday that Commodity Care arrested the ship in a $225,000 demurrage stemming dispute that resulted from a freight contract signed between the two parties in October 2022 to carry a cargo of rice from India to Abidjan in the Ivory coast.
That cargo was shipped on the 58,000-dwt dwt bulker Thetis (built 2013), a vessel owned by clients of Greece’s Sea Tribute Shipmanagement.
Commodity Care, which chartered the Thetis for a period of 80 to 90 days in October 2022 at a rate of $17,250 per day, agreed to carry a 2,000-tonne cargo of bagged rice to Abidjan, with freight priced at $68 per gross tonne.
Commodity Care alleged that the Thetis was forced to wait at anchor off Abidjan for several days because the cargo consignee had delayed arranging for trucks and labour gangs to discharge the cargo due to improper customs clearance.
