The Madras High Court has cleared the decks for Advantage Strategic Consulting Singapore Private Limited to prosecute a defamation suit filed against former Union Minister Subramanian Swamy before the High Court of Singapore for having named it in the Aircel Maxis scam. A Division Bench of the court has set aside an interim injunction granted against the company by a single judge in 2014.
Justices S.S. Sundar and P.B. Balaji allowed the Singapore firm’s appeal pending since 2014 and held that the Madras High Court lacks the jurisdiction to grant an anti suit injunction against a foreign entity. They said the single judge had granted the injunction just because the appellant company happened to be a subsidiary of Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Limited based in Chennai.
The Division Bench said the Supreme Court had time and again reiterated that a subsidiary should be considered as a distinct entity in relation to its transactions. Despite being fully owned by a parent or holding company, a subsidiary would not lose its identity as a separate legal entity and it could not be considered just as a puppet of the parent company merely because of its administration.
