Essar Oil Ltd. And Ors. vs Sunita Rani And Ors.

HEARD .

BRIEF facts are that Respondent No. 1/Complainant No. 1 (in both cases) in the year 1995 had applied for debentures with the Petitioner/Opposite Party No. 1 as well as Respondent No. 2/Opposite Party No. 2, which were in three parts. Part -A and Part -B were convertible debentures after a specific period and petitioner was to pay interest thereon. Part -C debenture was non -convertible. Respondent No. 1 in both cases, were entitled for interest on the same. Grievance of respondent No. 1, is that the petitioner has not paid the maturity value of Part -C debentures i.e. non -convertible debenture. Respondent No. 1, filed separate Complaints No. 78 and 74 of 2006 respectively, before District Forum praying that Opposite Parties be directed to pay Rs. 57,750/ - (in Compliant No. 78 of 2004) and Rs. 1,78,500/ - (in Complaint No. 74 of 2004) alongwith 14% interest from 1.1.2003. Respondent No. 1 also claimed sum of Rs. 40,000/ - and Rs. 50,000/ -, respectively on account of mental agony and physical harassment alongwith cost of litigation of Rs. 2,000/ - in each case.

PETITIONER as well as respondent No. 2 were duly served, but did not appear before the District Forum. As such, they were proceeded ex parte.

DISTRICT Forum, vide order dated 26.7.2006, partly allowed the complaints and directed the opposite parties to pay an amount of Rs. 30,250/ - (in Compliant No. 78 of 2004) and Rs. 93,500/ - ((in Compliant No. 74 of 2004) alongwith interest @ 12% per annum from 1.1.2003 till realization. In addition, they were directed to pay Rs. 20,000/ - each, as compensation. Further, Rs. 2,000/ - towards litigation expenses were also granted, in each case. Being aggrieved, petitioner filed First Appeals (Nos.1323 and 1324 of 2007) before the State Commission, which vide common impugned order dated 31.3.2011, concurred with the order of District Forum and dismissed the appeals.

NOW , petitioner has filed these revisions.

DEBENTURES were allotted to the complainants in the year 1995. Thus, about 20 years have lapsed. The litigation between the parties is going on for last above 12 years. There are concurrent findings of facts given by both the fora below. Even otherwise, only paltry amount of Rs. 30,250/ - and Rs. 93,500/ - plus interest etc. is involved in these cases. Hence, this Commission is not inclined to entertain these petitions, in view of the decision of Apex Court in "Gurgaon Gramin Bank v. Khazani and another, : IV (2012) CPJ 5 (SC), where Apex Court observed; "2. Number of litigations in our country is on the rise, for small and trivial matters, people and sometimes Central and State Governments and their instrumentalities Banks, nationalized or private, come to courts may be due to ego clash or to save the Officers'' skin. Judicial system is over -burdened, naturally causes delay in adjudication of disputes. Mediation centers opened in various parts of our country have, to some extent, eased the burden of the courts but we are still in the tunnel and the light is far away. On more than one occasion, this court has reminded the Central Government, State Governments and other instrumentalities as well as to the various banking institutions to take earnest efforts to resolve the disputes at their end. At times, some give and take attitude should be adopted or both will sink. Unless, serious questions of law of general importance arise for consideration or a question which affects large number of persons or the stakes are very high, Courts jurisdiction cannot be invoked for resolution of small and trivial matters. We are really disturbed by the manner in which those types of matters are being brought to courts even at the level of Supreme Court of India and this case falls in that category."

The Apex Court further held;

"10. The Chief Manager stated in the affidavit that no bill was raised by the counsel for the bank for conducting the matter before the National Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission. We have not been told how much money has been spent by the bank officers for their to and fro journeys to the lawyers'' office, to the District Forum, State Forum, National Commission and to the Supreme Court. For a paltry amount of Rs. 15000/ -,even according to the affidavit, bank has already spent a total amount of Rs. 12,950/ - leaving aside the time spent and other miscellaneous expenses spent by the officers of the bank for to and fro expenses etc. Further, it may be noted that the District Forum had awarded Rs. 3,000/ - towards cost of litigation and compensation for the harassment caused to Smt. Khazani. Adding this amount, the cost goes up to Rs. 15,950/ -. Remember, the buffalo had died 10 years back, but the litigation is not over, fight is still on for Rs. 15,000/ -.

Learned counsel appearing for the bank, Shri Amit Grover, submitted that though the amount involved is not very high but the claim was fake and on inspection by the insurance company, no tag was found on the dead body of the buffalo and hence the insurer was not bound to make good the loss, consequently the bank had to proceed against Smt. Khazani.

We are of the view that issues raised before us are purely questions of facts examined by the three forums including the National Disputes Redressal Commission and we fail to see what is the important question of law to be decided by the Supreme Court. In our view, these types of litigation should be discouraged and message should also go, otherwise for all trivial and silly matters people will rush to this court.

Gramin Bank like the appellant should stand for the benefit of the gramins who sometimes avail of loan for buying buffaloes, to purchase agricultural implements, manure, seeds and so on. Repayment, to a large extent, depends upon the income which they get out of that. Crop failure, due to drought or natural calamities, disease to cattle or their death may cause difficulties to gramins to repay the amount. Rather than coming to their rescue, banks often drive them to litigation leading them extreme penury. Assuming that the bank is right, but once an authority like District Forum takes a view, the bank should graciously accept it rather than going in for further litigation and even to the level of Supreme Court. Driving poor gramins to various litigative forums should be strongly deprecated because they have also to spend large amounts for conducting litigation. We condemn this type of practice, unless the stake is very high or the matter affects large number of persons or affects a general policy of the Bank which has far reaching consequences.

We, in this case, find no error in the decisions taken by all fact finding authorities including the National Disputes Redressal Commission. The appeal is accordingly dismissed with cost of Rs. 10,000/ - to be paid by the bank to the first respondent within a period of one month. Resultantly, the Bank now has to spend altogether Rs. 25,950/ - for a claim of Rs. 15,000/ -, apart from to and fro travelling expenses of the Bank officials. Let God save the Gramins."

Above quoted observations of the Apex Court, with all force are fully applicable to the facts and circumstances of the present cases.

IN the present case, debentures were allotted in the year 1995 and about 20 years have lapsed. Even otherwise, only paltry amount is involved, therefore, this commission is not inclined to entertain these petitions. However, the question of law raised in these petitions, if any, is kept open to be decided in an appropriate case, where stakes are high.

THE present revision petitions stand disposed of accordingly. No order as to cost.