A foreign State may sue in any competent court:
Provided that the object of the suit is to enforce a private right vested in the Ruler of such State or in any officer of such State in his public capacity.
A foreign State may sue in any competent court, provided that such foreign State has been recognised by the Central Government and provided that the object of the suit is to enforce a private right vested in the Ruler of such State or in any officer of such State in his public capacity.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
The term “private right” means a right which may be enforced by a foreign State against private individuals as distinguished from rights which one State in its political capacity may have as against another State in its political capacity.
Mirza Ali Akbar Kashani v. United Arab Republic:
The object of litigation by a foreign State cannot be to enforce the right vesting in a subject as such as a private subject; it must be the enforcement of a private right vested in the head of a State or in any officer of such State in his public capacity.
The private right to which the proviso refers is, on the ultimate analysis, the right vesting in the State; it may vest in the Ruler of a State or in any officer of such State in his public capacity, but it is a right which really and in substance vests in the State. It is in respect of such a right that a foreign State is authorised to bring a suit under S. 84.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
The term “ruler”, in relation to a foreign State, means the person who is for the time being recognised by the Central Government to be the head of the State.
Every court shall take judicial notice of the fact: (a) that a State has or has not been recognised by the Central Government and (b) that a person has or has not been recognised by the Central Government to be the head of a State.