Hdfc Bank Limited vs M/S Gautam Techagro India Private Limited And Ors.

The appellant is aggrieved by the refusal of the DRT to dispose of at an early date its two miscellaneous applications filed in its Original Application(O.A.) under Section 19 of the Recovery of Debts Due to Banks and Financial Institutions Act, 1993('RDDBFI Act' in short). One application was to pass a money decree on the basis of admisssion of liability by the respondents and the other one was for permission to sell the mortgaged properties which this appellate Tribunal had in the earlier round of litigation allowed to be sealed over by the Court receiver. The DRT has not passed any orders prayed for and simply issued notice to the defendants in the O.A. The recovery certificate for a sum of Rs. fiftyfive crores on the basis of admission of that much liability by the respondents was being sought from DRT.

Learned counsel for the appellant submitted that none of the defendants in the O.A. against whom directions for issuance of recovery certificate on the basis of admission of liability and for sale of the mortgaged properties which were taken over pursuant to the directions of DRAT in the earlier round of litigation are contesting the O.A. and in fact they had already fleed from the country to defeat the claim of the appellant, submitted counsel for the appellant and, therefore there is no need of even issuing any notice to the respondents.

In view of the aforesaid submission made by the learned counsel for the appellant and the order which I propose to pass no notice of this appeal is being issued to any of the respondents/defendants.

Considering all the facts and circumstances and particularly the fact that huge amount of public money is involved and the concerned defendants in the O.A. are not even contesting the ongoing recovery proceedings the appropriate relief to be granted to the appellant in the present appeal will be to request the DRT to dispose of I.A. Nos. 209/2019 and 271/2019 in accordance with law within a period of two months from the date of communication of this order by video conferencing be4cause of the reason that physical hearings are not taking place in DRTs due to spread of corona virus(covid-19). The appellant will be at liberty to submit written submissions, if so desired, digitally.