Allahabad High Court
M/S Elmech Power And Air ... vs Authorised Officer, Punjab ... on 27 September, 2023
Bench: Manish Mathur
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD, LUCKNOW BENCH
?Neutral Citation No. - 2023:AHC-LKO:62994
Court No. - 20
Case :- CIVIL MISC REVIEW APPLICATION DEFECTIVE No. - 182 of 2023
Applicant :- M/S Elmech Power And Air Conditioning Engineers Pvt. Ltd. Lko. Thru. Director Priyank Srivastava
Opposite Party :- Authorised Officer, Punjab National Bank,Lko. And 2 Others
Counsel for Applicant :- In Person
Counsel for Opposite Party :- P P Singh
Hon'ble Manish Mathur,J.
Order on Delay Condonation Application
1. Heard petitioner in person, and Mr. P.P. Singh learned counsel for the opposite party nos. 1 and 3.
2. Notice to opposite party no. 2 being the Debt Recovery Tribunal is dispensed with.
3. Application has been filed seeking condonation of delay of 113 days in filing the Review Application against the judgment and order dated 07.04.2023.
4. Although, the objections to the applications have been filed but in view of averments made in the affidavit filed in support of application for condonation of delay, sufficient grounds are present for condonation of delay and therefore the application is allowed condoning the delay in filing review petition.
Order on Memo
1. Rejoinder affidavit to the objection to application for codonation of delay is taken on record.
2. Review Petition has been filed against judgment and order dated 07.04.2023 passed in Writ Petition No. 702 of 2023 under Article 227 of the Constitution of India.
3. Primary ground taken by the petitioner in person for seeking review of the aforesaid judgment and order is that the order impugned has dismissed the petition on the ground of alternative and equally efficacious remedy by way of appeal while holding that the order passed by Debt Recovery Tribunal has been passed rejecting the petitioner?s application under Section 17 of the Act of 2002 not only on the ground of limitation but also considering merits of the case.
4. Petitioner in person has drawn attention to the order dated 04.02.2023 passed in S.A No. 751 of 2022 to submit that although the order states that merits of the case has been adjudicated but in fact merits of the case were not adjudicated at all and only cursory order has been passed without adverting to the grounds raised in the securitization application by the petitioner. It has been submitted that merely because judgments of High Courts have been quoted in the order passed by the Debt Recovery Tribunal does not make it an order passed on merits of the submissions. Petitioner in person has also adverted to paragraph no. 8 vis-a-vis paragraph no. 14 of the order by the Debt Recovery Tribunal to submit that a comparison of aforesaid orders also makes it evident that submissions of petitioner pertaining to pendency of the litigation before the Commercial Court, information regarding R.T.I. and First Information Reports have not been adjudicated upon on the ground of lack of jurisdiction. It is submitted that since the said aspects were taken in the securitization application, it was incumbent upon Debt Recovery Tribunal to have adjudicated upon the same and failure to do so clearly indicates that petitioner's contentions regarding such submissions have not been adverted to on merits.
5. Upon consideration of submissions advanced by petitioner in person, it is evident from the grounds taken in review petition that except for ground F, none of the other grounds pertain to any error apparent on the face of record and in fact pertain to First Information Reports filed by petitioner against the officials of the Bank, which was not subject matter of disputes in consideration with the judgment under challenge.
6. However, in ground F, the judgment and order dated 07.04.2023 has been assailed on the ground that the securitization application has not been considered on merits and therefore, such a finding by this Court in the judgment and order dated 07.04.2023 clearly constitutes an error apparent on the face of record.
7. A perusal of order dated 04.02.2023 passed by the Debt Recovery Tribunal which was under challenge in the writ jurisdiction clearly indicates in paragraph no. 8 the challenge raised by petitioner against demand notice dated 06.05.2022. The Tribunal has rejected such a challenge not only quoting judgment of High Court of Chattisgarh but applying the same and therefore holding that in view of legal position, there is no illegality in action of the Bank with regard to the demand notice. The aforesaid aspect has thereafter also been considered in paragraph nos. 9 and 11 of the order passed by D.R.T. The submission raised by the petitioner and before the Tribunal as indicated in paragraph nos. 11 and 12 however, were dismissed as being barred by limitation but in paragraph no. 13 of the order, challenge to order passed under Section 14 of the Act, has also been rejected after perusal of documents and affidavit which were on record.
8. From the perusal of the order passed by Debt Recovery Tribunal which was under challenge in the writ petition, it is evident that challenge raised by petitioner as indicated therein to various orders have been rejected after perusal of material on record and while considering judgments on the point. As such clearly the order passed by D.R.T was rightly held by this Court as having been passed not only on the ground of limitation but on the merits as well. The aspect as to whether the order of D.R.T rejecting the petitioners' submissions and challenge are legally correct or not is not an aspect to be adjudicated in review proceedings particularly when the petitioner has already been granted liberty to approach the appellate forum.
9. In view of the above discussion made hereinabove, it is quite evident that the findings recorded by this Court in its judgment and order dated 07.04.2023 are perfectly correct and are reiterated herein.
10. Consequently, there is no error apparent on the face of record and review petition thus being devoid of merit is dismissed. Parties to bear their own costs.
Order Date :- 27.9.2023
Satish
