Gujarat State Financial Corporation vs Bank of India Asset Recovery Management and Others

Ravi R. Tripathi, J.—The present Civil Application is filed by the applicant, i.e. Gujarat State Financial Corporation, seeking leave to appeal against the judgment and order passed in Special Civil Application No. 26680/2006 and Civil Application No. 832 of 2008 in Special Civil Application No. 26680 of 2006, in the interest of justice. Heard learned Senior Advocate Mr. Soparkar for the applicant herein. The learned Senior Advocate invited attention of the Court to the relevant part of para-7 of the order passed by the learned Single Judge in Civil Application No. 832/2008 in Special Civil Application No. 26680/2006, which reads as under:-

Learned advocate Mr. Desai appearing on behalf of Bank of India having instructions from Bank of India that Rs. 2.5 crores has been set apart from realization of the security of the company''s property under order of this Court, therefore, according to consent terms, the Bank of India has to transfer the amount from Rs. 2.5 crores in favour of M/s. K.T. Majoor Mahajan Sangh, Morbi in Savings Account No. 403741, Dena Bank, Nehru Gate Branch, Morbi, Rs. 1,75,05,027.51 within a period of one week from today. Rest of the amount, after transferring the aforesaid amount in the account of union, as referred above, is to remain with the Bank of India to be appropriated in its favour. Meaning thereby that after transferring the aforesaid amount in the account of Union, whatever amount is remained, that has to be appropriated by Bank of India in their favour and they can utilize that amount.

Learned Senior Advocate for the applicant submitted that the aforesaid observations made by the learned Single Judge will prejudice the rights and interest of the applicant and, therefore, the applicant wants to file Letters Patent Appeal for which leave to appeal is sought for.

Learned advocate Mr. J.T. Trivedi appearing for the Bank of India submitted that the present application seeking leave to appeal is misconceived, inasmuch as the party adversely affected by the order cannot have a right to file an appeal. The learned advocate invited attention of the Court to the Further Affidavit filed by Mr. S. Subramanian, Assistant General Manager, Bank of India, Specialised Asset Recovery Management Branch, Mumbai on 15.10.2012, and submitted that as set out in the application, it is Bank of India, which has to recover an amount of Rs. 98,85,080/- from the present applicant, i.e. Gujarat State Financial Corporation.

Assuming for the sake of argument that what is submitted by learned advocate Mr. Trivedi is correct, presence of Gujarat State Financial Corporation will smoothen its claim to be decided. In light of the above, this civil application is allowed. Leave is granted to the applicant to appeal against the judgment and order passed in Special Civil Application No. 26680/2006 and Civil Application No. 832/2008 in Special Civil Application No. 26680/2006.