1. The Admiralty (Jurisdiction and Settlement of Maritime
Claims) Act, 2017 ("Act") is being brought into force
from 1 st April 2018. Some of the salient features of the Act are
enumerated below.
Commencement of Proceedings
2. Where to file – The admiralty jurisdiction has been
extended to all High Courts whose territorial jurisdiction includes
a coastline. However, the current drafting leads to an ambiguous
situation where either all High Courts will exercise pan-India
admiralty jurisdiction or every High Court's jurisdiction will
be limited to 12 nautical miles from any point on the coastline
within its territorial jurisdiction.
3. What to file for – The admiralty jurisdiction of Indian
courts is limited to arrest of ships, and arrest of cargo is not
allowed. The list of claims to be treated as maritime claims is
largely similar to that in the Arrest Convention(s), however arrest
for security pending arbitration seems to be excluded. For
collision cases the
