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Admiralty Jurisdiction Over Cargo in India: In Rem, In Personam, and the Limits of the Admiralty Act, 2017
Introduction
Disputes over sea-carried cargo frequently arrive at an Indian High Court dressed in admiralty robes — an “admiralty suit,” an urgent injunction, a prayer to restrain a carrier from delivering goods. Yet the law on admiralty jurisdiction over cargo in India is a special, statutory jurisdiction with defined edges. Whether a court can act at all, and if so how, turns on three questions that are often run together but must be kept apart: is the claim a maritime claim; is the action in rem or in personam; and where is the res. This article sets out the framework under the Admiralty (Jurisdiction and Settlement of Maritime Claims) Act, 2017, with particular attention to cargo.
Admiralty Jurisdiction in India: The Statutory Framework
The Admiralty (Jurisdiction and Settlement of Maritime Claims) Act, 2017 (Act 22 of 2017), in force from 1 April 2018, consolidated and codified admiralty law in India and repealed the colonial-era admiralty statutes. It confers admiralty jurisdiction on the High Courts of the coastal States for cargo and other maritime claims in India, including the High Courts of Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, Karnataka, Gujarat, Orissa, Kerala and the High Court at Hyderabad (Section 2(e)).
The core provisions form a deliberate structure:
- Section 3 (Admiralty jurisdiction) vests jurisdiction over all maritime claims in the respective High Courts, “exercisable over the waters up to and including the territorial waters” of their respective jurisdictions — the territorial-waters limit being 12 nautical miles under the Territorial Waters, Continental Shelf, Exclusive Economic Zone and Other Maritime Zones Act, 1976.
- Section 4 (Maritime claim) empowers the High Court to determine “any question on a maritime claim, against any vessel,” arising out of an exhaustive list of heads in clauses (a) to (w). These include, relevantly, “loss or damage to or in connection with any goods” (clause (f)) and an “agreement relating to the carriage of goods or passengers on board a vessel” (clause (g)).
- Section 5 (Arrest of vessel in rem) permits the High Court to arrest “any vessel which is within its jurisdiction” as security for a maritime claim.
- Section 6 (Admiralty jurisdiction in personam) permits the High Court, “subject to section 7,” to exercise jurisdiction by an action in personam in respect of any maritime claim under Section 4.
- Section 7 (Restrictions on actions in personam in certain cases) imposes conditions — but only for a defined class of claims (see below).
- Section 12 applies the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 to admiralty proceedings “in so far as [it is] not inconsistent with or contrary to” the Act.
In Rem and In Personam: The Fundamental Divide
An action in rem is brought against the ship (or other maritime property) as the defendant. The vessel is treated as having a juridical personality; the claim attaches to the res, and — critically — the res must be within the court’s territorial jurisdiction to be arrested. Section 5 says so in terms: arrest is of “any vessel which is within its jurisdiction.”
An action in personam is brought against a person — the owner, charterer, carrier or other party — and binds that person, enforced through the ordinary machinery of the court (including contempt), not through seizure of the res. Section 6 confers this jurisdiction for maritime claims generally, subject to Section 7.
The distinction is not a technicality. It determines what must be present within the jurisdiction, what the resulting decree binds, and whether the relief survives a change of ownership.
Can Cargo Be Arrested?
A recurring misconception is that cargo can be “arrested” in the way a ship can. It cannot. “Arrest” is defined in Section 2(c) as the detention or restriction of removal of a vessel; Section 5 is headed “Arrest of vessel in rem.” Cargo is “goods” under Section 2(d) — expressly including containers — not a vessel. Consistently, the maritime-lien list in Section 9 excludes “loss or damage to cargo and containers carried on the vessel” from the tort-based lien in clause (e). Cargo, in short, is not a res that Indian admiralty law arrests, and cargo-related claims are ordinary maritime claims under Section 4 rather than lien-backed in rem claims.
The practical consequence is important: an order that has the effect of controlling specific cargo cannot be justified as an in rem measure. If it is to stand, it must stand as in personam relief against a party properly before the court, tested by ordinary principles.
Is a Cargo-Title Dispute Even a “Maritime Claim”?
Section 4 opens with the words “against any vessel.” The heads on which cargo claimants usually rely — clause (f) (“loss or damage to or in connection with any goods”) and clause (g) (“agreement relating to the carriage of goods … on board a vessel”) — are directed at the carriage relationship: physical loss or damage to goods, or disputes under the contract of carriage. A dispute that is, in substance, a contest over title to or ownership of goods between a buyer and seller under a sale contract — where the goods are intact and no carriage obligation is breached — sits uneasily within these heads. Where the plaint discloses only such a commercial title dispute, a defendant can legitimately contend that no maritime claim under Section 4 is disclosed and that admiralty jurisdiction is not attracted at all. The breadth of clauses (f) and (g) means the point is fact-sensitive and must be tested on the pleadings, but it is frequently the strongest line available.
Section 7: A Restriction, Not a General Gateway
Plaintiffs sometimes invoke Section 7 as though it were the general basis for in personam jurisdiction, relying on its language that the court may act where “the cause of action, wholly or in part, arises in India” or “the defendant … carries on business … in India.” That reading misapprehends the provision. By its opening words, Section 7(1) applies only where the maritime claim arises “in respect of a damage or loss of life or personal injury arising out of” (i) a collision between vessels, (ii) a manoeuvre or omission to manoeuvre, or (iii) non-compliance with the collision regulations. In other words, Section 7 is a set of restrictions on in personam actions in collision-type cases. It does not, by its terms, apply to a cargo claim under clause (f) or (g), and its territorial-nexus conditions cannot be borrowed for a claim to which the provision does not apply.
Cargo Situated Abroad
Where the cargo lies outside Indian territorial waters, the analysis divides.
As an in rem matter, the Act’s territorial character is clear: Section 3 confines admiralty jurisdiction to the territorial waters, and Section 5 permits arrest only of a vessel within jurisdiction. The Kerala High Court, in Owners and Parties Interested in the Vessel M.V. Korea Chemi v. Siluvaipichai Francies (2025), held — in an action in rem — that the presence of the vessel within the territorial jurisdiction is essential to the exercise of admiralty jurisdiction under the Act, and that the wider proposition in M.V. Elisabeth v. Harwan Investment and Trading Pvt. Ltd., 1993 Supp (2) SCC 433, that Indian High Courts enjoy plenary admiralty jurisdiction, stands modified by the 2017 Act.
As an in personam matter, however, the position is different and must not be over-stated. An in personam order operates on the defendant, not on the goods; a court with jurisdiction over the defendant may, in principle, restrain that defendant’s conduct even in relation to property abroad. The location of the cargo is therefore not, by itself, a jurisdictional bar to an in personam suit. The real questions in such a case are whether the claim is a genuine maritime claim under Section 4, and whether any interim order satisfies the ordinary tests for injunctive relief.
Section 120 CPC and the Source of Jurisdiction
Because admiralty is a special jurisdiction, its territorial reach is fixed by the Act, not by the ordinary cause-of-action rule in Section 20 of the Code of Civil Procedure. Section 120 CPC provides that Sections 16, 17 and 20 CPC do not apply to a High Court in the exercise of its original civil jurisdiction, as the Supreme Court noted in Food Corporation of India v. Evdomen Corporation, (1999) 2 SCC 446. A plaintiff cannot, therefore, found admiralty jurisdiction merely by pleading that “part of the cause of action arose” within the State; jurisdiction must satisfy the Act’s own criteria — beginning with a maritime claim under Section 4.
Key Takeaways
- Admiralty jurisdiction over cargo in India is governed by the Admiralty (Jurisdiction and Settlement of Maritime Claims) Act, 2017: know whether you are in Section 5 (in rem arrest of a vessel) or Section 6 (in personam).
- Cargo is not a res that Indian admiralty law arrests; an order controlling cargo must be justified, if at all, as in personam relief.
- A buyer-seller title dispute over goods may not be a maritime claim under Section 4 at all — always test the plaint against the Section 4 heads.
- Section 7’s territorial-nexus conditions are confined to collision-type claims; they are not a general in personam gateway.
- For cargo abroad, distinguish sharply between the in rem territorial requirement and the in personam reach over a defendant present in India.
