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Judgment
This revision petition has been filed under section 21(1)(b) of the Act 1986 in challenge to the Order dated 27.01.2017 of the State Commission in appeal no. 229 of 2015 arising out of the Order dated 17.07.2015 of the District Commission in complaint no. 95 of 2014.
Learned proxy counsel is present on behalf of the petitioner (the ‘complainant’).
Learned counsel is present for the respondents no. 1 and no. 2 (the ‘gramin bank’).
We have perused the record and heard the learned counsel for the gramin bank (learned counsel for the complainant could not be heard as he is not available).
The dispute between the complainant and the gramin bank relates to the loan liability of the complainant. The complainant, a farmer, had taken a loan from the gramin bank by mortgaging 08 bigha of agricultural land. His grievance is that the outstanding loan amount has not been waived off by the gramin bank, which it ought to have done as per the central government’s debt relief scheme.
The District Forum vide its Order dated 17.07.2015 dismissed the complaint.
The complainant appealed before the State Commission. The State Commission vide its impugned Order dated 27.01.2017 dismissed the appeal. The said Order is reproduced below:
27-01-2017
Appellant absent. Respondent present.
The complaint with a grievance is filed that Bank issued notice for payment of loan dues, whereas entire loan is waive under the Scheme of the Central Government. The respondent-Bank submits that on receiving the satisfaction letter from the complainant the payment released towards the price of Tractor purchased and received by the complainant. The District Forum upon considering the case of the parties and the documents on the record having found no merit in the complainant dismissed the same.
We have considered the submission as also the impugned order in light of the complaint. We find the District Forum has considered the case of the parties in the light of the documents in correct perspective.
We have no reason to take a different view of the matter. In the result, appeal being devoid of the any merit is dismissed.
A mere reading of the State Commission’s Order shows that it has been passed in the absence of the complainant appellant and the appeal has not been dismissed in default but on merit. But neither the appraisal of the facts and evidence nor the process of arriving at reasoned and just findings is discernible. The State Commission has stated that “We find the District Forum has considered the case of the parties in the light of the documents in correct perspective. We have no reason to take a different view of the matter.”, but there is hardly any appreciation of the facts and evidence or any critique or reasons visible in the Order as may substantiate such conclusion.
When the appellant was not being heard and the matter was still being dismissed as “being devoid of the any merit”, the cursory judgement (quoted in toto above) is insufficient to meet the requirements of a well weighed considered decision. The impugned Order is sketchy and too cursory to qualify as a well-appraised reasoned Order, it does not reflect a judicial application of mind, and it certainly does not survive the requisite standard of a just and speaking Order.
Learned counsel for the respondent fairly agrees that this is a fit case in which the matter ought to be remitted back to the State Commission for hearing and passing a reasoned Order afresh.
Sequel to the above the impugned Order dated 27.01.2017 of the State Commission is set aside and the matter is remitted back to the State Commission with request to hear the matter afresh after affording opportunity of hearing to both sides (including specifically the complainant appellant) and to decide the appeal afresh on merit as per the law. The parties are directed to appear before the State Commission on 10.05.2022.
The Registry is requested to send a copy each of this Order to the parties in the petition and to their learned counsel as well as to the State Commission immediately. The stenographer is also requested to upload this Order on the website of this Commission immediately.