Sudesh Rani Chib vs Adjudicating Officer And Others

Tarun Agarwala, Presiding Officer

The present appeal has been filed against the order dated 4th July, 2019 by which the complaint of the appellant was rejected on the SCORES platform.

The facts leading to the filing of the present appeal is, that the mother of appellant Mrs. Shakuntala Bedi purchased bonds from NHAI on 27th November, 2009 which carried interest at the rate of 6.25% per p.a. The said bonds matured on 30th December, 2012 but for reasons best known the mother of the appellant did not redeem the bonds as a result the maturity amount was not released by NHAI. Mrs. Shakuntala Bedi died on 16th September, 2018 and only thereafter the appellant who is the second holder of the bond realised that the bonds have not been redeemed. Accordingly, the appellant applied and the same was redeemed on 2nd January, 2019.

The appellant, thereafter, gave a legal notice to NHAI praying that the appellant was entitled for interest from 1st January, 2013 till 31st December, 2018 on the ground that NHAI had kept the money which they have utilised and, therefore, are obligated to pay interest. Since no response was received the appellant lodged a complaint on the SCORES platform which was disposed by the impugned order dated 4th July, 2019.

From a perusal of the impugned order we find that SEBI sought response from NHAI and considered their response as given in their letter dated 11th March, 2019 and, further, came to a conclusion that the complaint of the appellant was barred by limitation in view of the circular of SEBI which required a complainant to file or lodge a complaint within 3 years from date of the cause of action.

Having heard the learned counsel for the parties at some length we find that when the bonds matured on 30th December, 2012 the cause of action arose to take steps to redeem the bonds. The original bondholder Mrs. Shankuntala Bedi did not take any steps to redeem those bonds and, therefore, it is not correct on the part of the appellant to state that the cause of action arose only when the appellant started the redemption process and which was extended till the date when the amount was actually received. In our opinion, the cause of action started from the date when the bonds matured.

We also find from the letter of NHAI that condition no.6 on the certificate clearly indicates that payment of redemption of bonds would be made only on surrendering the bond certificate and duly discharged by the bondholder. Further, all interest on the bond will cease from due date of redemption in all events.

It is, thus, clear that after the maturity date there is no liability on the part of NHAI to pay interest in the event the redemption is made belatedly by the bondholder.

In the light of the aforesaid, the appeal lacks merit and is dismissed with no order as to costs.

The present matter was heard through video conference due to Covid-19 pandemic. At this stage it is not possible to sign a copy of this order nor a certified copy of this order could be issued by the registry. In these circumstances, this order will be digitally signed by the Private Secretary on behalf of the bench and all concerned parties are directed to act on the digitally signed copy of this order. Parties will act on production of a digitally signed copy sent by fax and/or email.