[Cites 3, Cited by 0]
Calcutta High Court
M/S. Superb Drugs Pvt. Ltd. And Ors vs Idbi Bank And Anr on 9 January, 2026
Author: Arijit Banerjee
Bench: Arijit Banerjee
OD-1
ORDER SHEET
APO/95/2025
IA No.GA/1/2025
IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA
Civil Appellate Jurisdiction
ORIGINAL SIDE
M/S. SUPERB DRUGS PVT. LTD. AND ORS.
VS
IDBI BANK AND ANR.
BEFORE:
The Hon'ble JUSTICE ARIJIT BANERJEE
AND
The Hon'ble JUSTICE APURBA SINHA RAY
Date : 9th January, 2026
Appearance:
Mr. Arijit Bardhan, Adv.
Mr. Prasenjit Paul, Adv.
Mr. Avirup Chatterjee, Adv.
Mr. Rishov Das, Adv.
..for the appellants
Mr. Shaswat Nayak, Adv.
Ms. Rituparna Sanyal, Adv.
Ms. Siddhi Agarwal, Adv.
..for the respondents
Dictated by Arijit Banerjee, J.
The Court: This appeal is directed against an order dated
November 14, 2025, whereby a Learned Judge of this Court has dismissed
the appellants' writ petition being WPO/458/2024. The only ground on
which the writ petition was dismissed is that the writ petitioners have an
alternative remedy before the Debts Recovery Tribunal under Section 17 of
The Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement
of Security Interest Act, 2002, to challenge an order under Section 14 of the
Act. Although, the respondent Bank also urged that it being a private
entity, it is not amenable to the writ jurisdiction of this Court, that point
was not decided by the Learned Single Judge.
We have heard learned Counsel for the parties at some length. We
do not wish to have multiple hearings. We want to dispose of the appeal
itself as we are told that all papers that were available before the learned
Single Judge are also before us.
Today, we have heard learned Counsel for the parties on the point
of maintainability of a writ petition against IDBI Bank. Learned Counsel for
the Bank has drawn our attention to page 177 of the stay petition, which is
a notification dated March 14, 2019, issued by the Reserve Bank of India,
whereby IDBI Bank Limited has been categorised as a private sector Bank.
Learned Counsel for the Bank has also drawn our attention to an order of a
Learned Single Judge of this Court dated June 11, 2019, passed in WP
No.8736(W) of 2019, whereby the Learned Judge dismissed a writ petition
on the ground that IDBI Bank Limited is a private sector Bank and as such,
is not amenable to the writ jurisdiction of this Court. He also relied on a
decision of a Division Bench of the Bombay High Court, dated December 8,
2020, rendered in Writ Petition (L) No.6704 of 2020 and, in particular, on
paragraph 20 of the said judgment, in support of his submission that a writ
petition would not lie against IDBI Bank Limited.
Per contra, learned Advocate for the appellants relied on a decision
of a Learned Single Judge of this Court in the case of Tibrewal Steels Private
Limited and Ors vs. IDBI Bank Limited and Ors. (2023 SCC OnLine Cal
1028), in support of his submission that where a private Bank discharges
statutory duties or duties of a public nature, it may well be amenable to the
writ jurisdiction of the High Court.
We need to decide the aforesaid issue and other issues involved.
The other issue that arises is whether the period of 45 days indicated in
Section 17 of The Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and
Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002, should be computed from the
date of the order passed under Section 14 or from the date of the debtor
gaining knowledge of that order. That apart, other points on merits may
also arise.
List the appeal for hearing on January 21, 2026, under the
appropriate heading.
Mr. Bardhan, learned Advocate for the appellants, prayed for an
order of stay of operation of the impugned order.
We are not inclined to pass any such order. However, since we are
in seisin of the appeal and propose to hear out the appeal on January 21,
2026, we trust and hope that no such step will be taken by the Bank, in the
meantime, which shall render the appeal infructuous.
(ARIJIT BANERJEE, J.)
(APURBA SINHA RAY, J.)
sg.
