Question

Principle: Civil Suit can be filed where defendant resides or carries on business or where cause of action arises.
Facts: An agreement is signed and executed in New Delhi between A and B for supply of goods wherein B is to supply goods to be delivered at New Delhi to client of A. A carries on business at Haryana and B carries on Business in UP. Civil suit by ‘B’ for payment of consideration can be filed against ‘A’ at

• A. Only at New Delhi, where cause of action arises
• B. Only at Haryana where ‘A’ carries on business
• C. Only at UP where ‘B’ carries on business
• D. At Haryana or at New Delhi

Hint:

A civil suit can be filed where the defendant resides, carries on business, or where the cause of action occurs.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is D

The principle states that a civil suit can be filed where the defendant resides, where they carry on business, or where the cause of action arises. In this case, B can file the civil suit against A either in Haryana where A carries on business or in New Delhi where the cause of action arose (due to the delivery of goods).
Thus, the correct answer is (D).
Option (A) is incorrect because it only considers New Delhi but does not account for Haryana. Option (B) is incorrect because UP is not relevant in this case. Option (C) is incorrect because it focuses solely on UP where B carries on business.

Answer 2

Here B wants to sue A for payment, so we need to find every place connected to A as defendant or to where the deal actually took place. Let's work through the options.

1. Only at New Delhi, where the cause of action arises: New Delhi is a valid forum since the agreement was signed there and delivery was to happen there. But restricting the suit to New Delhi alone leaves out Haryana, where A carries on business.
2. Only at Haryana, where A carries on business: Haryana is a valid forum too, since that is where A, the defendant, carries on business. Limiting the suit to Haryana alone, though, ignores New Delhi, where the cause of action arose.
3. Only at UP, where B carries on business: The principle looks at the defendant's business location or the place of the cause of action, not the plaintiff's own place of business. B carries on business in UP, but that has no bearing on where B can sue A.
4. At Haryana or at New Delhi: A carries on business in Haryana, satisfying one branch of the principle, and the agreement was executed and delivery was to occur in New Delhi, satisfying the cause-of-action branch. Both places are therefore valid forums for B's suit against A.

Since A's place of business and the place where the cause of action arose are two different cities, both remain open to B under the principle, and UP has no relevance here since it is where the plaintiff, not the defendant, does business.

So the correct answer is at Haryana or at New Delhi.

Answer 3

Just as before, the task is to count the valid forums correctly rather than pick just one plausible-looking option. Here the defendant is A, so the relevant connecting factors are A's business location and the place of the cause of action, not B's.

1. Only New Delhi: This option correctly spots New Delhi as valid, since the agreement was executed and delivery was to occur there, but wrongly drops Haryana, where A, the defendant, carries on business.
2. Only Haryana: This option makes the opposite undercount, correctly noting Haryana as A's place of business but leaving out New Delhi, where the cause of action arose.
3. Only UP: This option picks a place tied to B, the plaintiff, rather than to A, the defendant, or to the cause of action. The principle looks at the defendant's location or the cause of action, not the plaintiff's own place of business, so UP has no relevance to where B may sue A.
4. At Haryana or at New Delhi: This option counts correctly, capturing both of A's genuinely connecting locations, business in Haryana and the cause of action in New Delhi, without adding or omitting anything.

Since A's business location and the place the cause of action arose are two different cities, and both independently satisfy the principle, B may sue at either one; UP simply does not enter the analysis at all since it concerns the plaintiff, not the defendant.

Therefore, the correct answer is at Haryana or at New Delhi.