Legal battle between Informatics and IFS comes to an end in Supreme Court

Thursday, 3 August 2017 01:12 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The long-fought battle between Informatics International Lanka Ltd. and IFS AB Sweden yesterday came to an end in the Supreme Court.

The Commercial High Court on 26 April 2016 dismissed a derivative action instituted by Informatics (petitioner) against IFS (first respondent), the global software vendor giant and 14 other respondents.

The derivative action was filed under the Companies Act of Sri Lanka by Informatics in a representative manner for and on behalf of IFS Sri Lanka Ltd, a joint venture company set up consequent to an MoU between Informatics and IFS AB (Sweden). This action was filed by Informatics as a final straw after having been defeated in a series of legal battles including arbitral proceedings held between Informatics and IFS AB.

In June 2016 Informatics filed a Leave to Appeal petition in the Supreme Court challenging the Order of the Commercial High Court delivered in favour of IFS AB.

The Leave to Appeal petition was taken up in the Supreme Court yesterday and Counsel for IFS AB Avindra Rodrigo raised a preliminary objection to the Leave to Appeal petition filed.

Counsel, while stating the law and citing several judgments, informed Court that the petitioner Informatics had failed to comply with proper procedure in preferring the Leave to Appeal to the Supreme Court and the matter should therefore be dismissed in the first instance.

In response to the above objection raised, counsel for the petitioner Faisz Mustapha P.C. sought to distinguish between the procedures followed in preferring a Leave to Appeal and further stating that the procedure to be followed is yet to be determined with utmost certainty by the Superior Court.

Taking into consideration the applicable laws and the case law cited by both parties and more specifically taking note of the judgments cited by the Counsel for IFS AB, Court upheld the objections raised by the Counsel for IFS AB and Leave to Appeal was disallowed.

Counsel Faisz Mustapha P.C., with S. Sriskantha, appeared for the petitioner Informatics while Avindra Rodrigo with Rozali Fernando appeared for IFS AB (first respondent) and 13 other respondents.