J. Sagar Associates (JSA) successfully defended C.G. Power and Industrial Solutions Limited (“CG”) in an Interim Application filed by two ex-employees, Mr. Vijay Lalwani and Mr. Jayant Keshkamat (“Plaintiffs”)
on behalf of 256 ex-employees of CG in a Representative Suit before the Hon’ble Bombay High Court. The application, heard by videoconference, sought a stay on CG’s discontinuance of premium payments for medical insurance cover for ex-employees.
By a judgment dated 25 June 2020 dismissing the Interim Application, Justice G.S. Patel of the Hon’ble High Court observed:
1. COVID-19 has affected both individuals and companies, and the situation cannot not be used to avoid the standard legal requirements for the grant of mandatory injunctions;
2. Promissory estoppel in India has largely been invoked against the Government and other statutory authorities;
3. The Plaintiffs had acquiesced to the right of CG to alter the insurance coverage thus emphatically raising the question of unexplained delay amounting to laches;
4. The Plaintiffs had failed to make out a prima facie case for grant of mandatory injunction, as laid down in Samir Narain Bhojwani v. Aurora Properties and Investments (2018 17 SCC 203).
JSA Team comprised: Partners – Farhad Sorabjee and Pratik Pawar, Principal Associate – Shanaya Cyrus Irani and Associate – Siddhesh S. Pradhan.
Pratik’s core area of practice is litigation and alternative dispute resolution in a diverse range of corporate & commercial disputes, matters pertaining to public trusts, and matters arising out of engineering and construction contracts, and matters pertaining to media & entertainment law.