Allahabad High Court
Smt. Sonika Singh And Anr. vs Authorised Officer,Union Bank Of ... on 30 April, 2018
Bench: Amreshwar Pratap Sahi, Abhai Kumar
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD
?Court No. - 40
Case :- WRIT - C No. - 11913 of 2018
Petitioner :- Smt. Sonika Singh And Anr.
Respondent :- Authorised Officer,Union Bank Of Inida,Ada Agra Branch And 2 Ors.
Counsel for Petitioner :- Sanjay Kumar Gupta
Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.,Anay Kumar Srivastava,Ashish Agrawal
Hon'ble Amreshwar Pratap Sahi,J.
Hon'ble Abhai Kumar,J.
This writ petition has been heard along with Writ Petition No.10766 of 2018. The said writ petition has been filed by Mahesh Kumar Verma contending that petitioners in the present case have tried to overreach the securitization proceedings without informing the court about the correct facts on record. The said petition has been disposed off today by a separate order.
This court had passed the orders in the connected writ petition on 3rd April, 2018 and in this writ petition on 13th April, 2018 and again on 23rd April, 2018.
The facts that emerge and is the bone of contention in the present case is about the District Magistrate, Agra having undertaken proceedings for possession in terms of Section 14 of SARFAESI Act, 2002 (hereinafter referred to as "the Act, 2002").
Apart from the litigative background of the case, the legal ground raised in this petition is as to whether the District Magistrate, Agra could have proceeded to pass the order under Section 14 of Act, 2002 without there being any affidavit in support of application filed by the Bank.
In the writ petition, the petitioners have taken a clear stand in Paragraphs 22 and 23 that there was no supporting affidavit for the District Magistrate to have proceeded on the application dated 28th October, 2017. The order impugned of the District Magistrate refers to an affidavit dated 3rd October, 2017.
In order to ascertain the correctness of the status of any such affidavit being present on record, this Court had called upon the learned counsel for the Bank to file an affidavit and the learned Standing Counsel to verify the status of such affidavit being available on record. The petitioners were also called upon to file an affidavit explaining as to on what basis such averments have been made in the writ petition.
The bank and the petitioners have exchanged the affidavits. The petitioners have filed an affidavit dated 20.4.2018 alongwith which they have brought on record the certified copy dated 27.3.2018 issued from the office of District Magistrate containing the order dated 9.11.2017, an application under Section 14 of Act, 2002 and an affidavit which is said to be dated 31.1.2017.
The certified copy which has been filed by the petitioners brings on record the affidavit of R.K. Bhagat, the Chief Manager of Union Bank of India, who has put his signatures at two places. One the left hand side of the first page of the affidavit and beneath the same he has mentioned the date as 31/01.17. The same date is mentioned on the next page under his signatures. What is surprising to note is that the affidavit, no where mentions the date either 3rd October, 2017 or the date as referred to herein above. Even the verification clause is blank and so is the space provided against that meant for the date in the affidavit.
As against this affidavit, the bank has filed an affidavit dated 15.4.2018 with a certified copy having being obtained on 13.4.2018. This certified copy has, therefore, been obtained later on, than that of the petitioners. Alongwith this affidavit, the same affidavit of R.K. Bhagat has been filed, but all the columns of verification have been filled-up and the date mentioned is 3rd October, 2017. It is surprising that the previous certified copy issued from the office of the Collector to the petitioners does not contain the date 3rd October, 2017 and spaces were blank, whereas certified copy issued later on from the same office on 13.4.2018 mentions the date of the affidavit 3rd October, 2017. Thus, whether the original affidavit bears any such date and as to how the previous certified copy was issued to the petitioners is a matter to be explained by the District Magistrate, Agra himself by filing a proper affidavit placing on record all the proceedings before the Court.
We, therefore, direct the District Magistrate, Agra to file his affidavit and explain the same and also furnish the records in order to enable this Court to proceed with the matter.
Further, as per our previous order dated 23rd April, 2018 no instructions are available with the learned Standing Counsel from the Additional Commissioner Administration, who had been called upon to file his personal affidavit.
In this view of the matter since the learned Standing Counsel is praying for further time as the communication does not appear to have been properly responded, the matter shall come up on Monday next i.e. 7.5.2018 by which date, the affidavit of District Magistrate, Agra and that of Additional Commissioner Administration both shall be placed before this Court together with the records of the proceeding before the District Magistrate under Section 14 of the Act, 2002.
Let the matter come up on 7th May, 2018.
Order Date :- 30.4.2018
Ajeet
