Stevedoring companies that provide cargo loading and unloading services at Chennai port are up against the Chennai Port Trust (ChPT) on the compulsory use of mobile harbour cranes (MHCs) at break bulk berths operated by a private company. They claim they cannot bear the additional cost.

. “We regret our inability to comply with this notice. Our members have been advised to disregard the notice on account of its illegality,” said The Chennai Port Stevedores Association president Ishwar Achanta, who is a former Trustee of ChPT.

Long-running dispute

The association has 28 members. The tussle between the association and the ChPT over the issue has been going on for the last four years when Roadwings was awarded a contract by the ChPT in 2014 to supply, operate and maintain two MHCs of over 100 tonne capacity. The association filed a writ petition on January 15, 2016, seeking to quash the contract dated November 3, 2014 between the ChPT and Roadwings and the trade notice dated November 30, 2015. It also sought the court to direct the port trust to float another tender for the deployment of mobile harbour cranes at the port.

Arbitration award

Roadwings also initiated arbitration proceedings against the ChPT. On January 19, 2016, the arbitrator passed an interim award directing ChPT trust to allot Jawahar Docks II, IV and VI as opposed to Jawahar Docks 1, 3 and 5 (as per the agreement) to Roadwings.

When the writ petition was taken up for hearing on March 3, 2016, the arbitrator’s interim award was brought to the knowledge of the Madras High Court, which directed the parties to maintain status quo . The interim order was made absolute on July 19, 2018. Roadwings filed a writ petition seeking clarification that the arbitration proceedings between it and the ChPT be permitted.

The High Court took note of the fact that the association was not a party to the arbitration agreement and clarified that there was no impediment in the award being passed. The order of status quo was not vacated or modified. “The protection afforded to the association continues to be in force,” Achanta told BusinessLine .

‘Violation of court order’

However, contrary to the High Court’s direction, the ChPT issued the trade notice on March 2 permitting Roadwings to operate, and also made it mandatory to use the services of Roadwings at those docks.

“The ChPT also proceeded to direct all traffic into those docks. This is a clear violation of the order of status quo . The trade notice can only be construed to be wilful disobedience of the order of status quo that had been issued by the High Court,” Achanta said.

ChPT stand

However, sources in ChPT said that the trade notice was issued based on the arbitration tribunal award on February 12, which said that Roadwings was entitled to operate in the various berths.

Achanta said the association had requested the ChPT to immediately withdraw the notice, failing which “we will have no option but to initiate proceedings for contempt of court,” he said. “We appeal to the ChPT to withdraw the notice in the interest of the trade,” he added.

Achanta said that association members are getting three or four ships in the next few days. “We cannot afford to have any of these ships sent to the MHC operator since they will charge ₹157 per tonne. We will have no option but to divert the ships to other ports such as Katupalli.,” he said.

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