DECLARATORY SUIT

Declaratory Suit:
Generally, party seeking solutions to a dispute file a declaratory suit by asking the declaratory judgment. It is often sought in a situation that involves contracts, leases, IPR disputes, deeds etc. It is a preventive justice as the purpose of this judgment is to inform the parties of their rights to help them to avoid violation of specific laws or term of the contract. It is filed when a party is threatened with law suit and the threatened lawsuit is not yet filed or when the party think that their rights under any law is going to going to conflict or a counterclaim to prevent the plaintiff to file the similar law suit again.
Declaratory Judgment is merely a direction of the Court to the parties which is binding to the parties. Declaratory judgment is pronounced by the Court in civil cases where Court declares the rights, liabilities, duties of the parties over a certain issues. It does not decide any award of damage at all.
Section-34 of the Indian Specific Relief Act, 1963 stipulates that “Discretion of court as to declaration of status or right. Any person entitled to any legal character, or to any right as to any property, may institute a suit against any person denying, or interested to deny, his title to such character or right, and the court may in its discretion make therein a declaration that he is so entitled, and the plaintiff need not in such suit ask for any further relief”.

The proviso of this section also envisages that “no court shall make any such declaration where the plaintiff, being able to seek further relief than a mere declaration of title, omits to do so”.

According to Setcion-35 of the Act, “a declaration made under this Chapter is binding only on the parties to the suit, persons claiming through them respectively, and, where any of the parties are trustees, on the persons for whom, if in existence at the date of the declaration, such parties would be trustees”.
Similarly, in United States under 28 USCA 2201 of the Declaratory Judgment Act, 1934 that allows for declaratory judgments concerning issues related to federal laws.
For example, sometime the original owner of the patent does not respond initially against the alleged infringer for violation of his right and in that situation if the alleged infringer thinks that there is a threat to the issue then the alleged infringer can also file a declaratory suit asking for declaratory judgment over the patent issue to resolve the situation and eliminate the dispute to make a bar to the owner from filing a suit against the alleged infringer in the near future. In this situation the owner of the patent have to come to the jurisdiction of the alleged infringer in his own cost to settle the dispute.
Judge may issue a cease and desist order for the purpose of prevention of a certain activity relates to the disputed subject matter. Declaratory suit is an emergency measure to prevent possible irreparable damage.