The High Court of Karnataka has upheld the registration of a criminal case under the Indian laws against a cargo container ship, owned by a company in Singapore, for causing collusion with a mechanised fishing boat from Kerala in international water off Mangaluru coast in April last year, resulting in the death 12 fishermen.
Justice M. Nagaprasanna passed the order while dismissing a petition filed by CMA CGM Asia Shipping PTE Ltd., Singapore.
The petitioner-company had questioned the prosecution in India while contending that the provisions of India’s Merchant Shipping Act, 1958, the Indian Penal Code (IPC), and the Code of Criminal Procedure (Cr.PC) are not applicable to it as it has no presence in India, and registration of the case under these laws is contrary to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS), 1982.
