HC orders startup to pay PVR ad dues worth ₹1cr

Mumbai: The Bombay high court has said that in today’s times, electronic money transfers, payments can be effected from anywhere in the world. The HC’s recent observation came in a suit for money brought before it by the multiplex chain PVR.
The HC held that, “Merely because the details of the receiving bank are within the jurisdiction of another city, this fact alone would not mean that the amounts are payable in that city and that part of the cause of action had arisen in that city.”
The HC’s single-judge bench of Justice Arif Doctor directed a startup — Proteus Ventures, a limited liability partnership (LLP) — to pay Rs 1.1 crore to PVR.PVR had sought a decree from the HC, citing invoices, for the amount it said was due from the LLP for various advertisements screened in its multiplexes between December 2019 and February 2020.
The LLP filed an application and challenged the suit filed by PVR before the Bombay HC. It sought the suit’s rejection, saying only Delhi HC had the jurisdiction. Justice Doctor dismissed the application.
PVR had also sought Shardul Bayas and Abhinay Deo, two partners of Proteus, parties to its suit. Counsel Abhinav Chandrachud and advocate Samsher Garud for the two partners sought deletion of their names as defendants.