Withholding payment due to unliquidated damages is unsustainable

Ocean Sparkle Limited Vs Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. (Bombay High Court)

There cannot be any justification for the ONGC to withhold any amount on the premise that it has a claim of unliquidated damages against the petitioner

Facts-
Pursuant to the agreement the petitioner (Ocean Sparkle Limited) had chartered its vessel, ‘OSL Glory’ to ONGC for a period of three years, commencing from March 20, 2018 at 12.18 hours. The parties agreed that the agreement would stand completed unless automatically extended for a period not exceeding 30 days under the same rates to the satisfaction of ONGC.

On September 1, 2019 the petitioner’s vessel (whilst on ONGC charter) collided with ONGC unmanned platform ‘RS-21’ when the vessel was approaching Rig Jindal Explorer.

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