Punjab-Haryana High Court
Charanjit Trading Company vs Icici Home Finance Ltd. And Others on 27 July, 2023
Neutral Citation No:=2023:PHHC:096108-DB
2023:PHHC:096108-DB
257 IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA
AT CHANDIGARH
CWP-13998-2023
Date of Decision: July 27, 2023
CHARANJIT TRADING COMPANY ...... Petitioner
Versus
ICICI HOME FINANCE LTD. AND OTHERS ..... Respondents
CORAM:- HON'BLE MRS. JUSTICE LISA GILL
HON'BLE MRS. JUSTICE RITU TAGORE
Present: Ms. Komalpreet Kaur, Advocate for
Mr. Deepak Arora, Advocate for the petitioner.
Mr. D.K. Singal, Advocate and
Mr. Rahul Garg, Advocate for respondents No. 1 and 2.
Mr. Sandeep Jain, Addl.AG, Punjab.
****
LISA GILL, J.
1. Prayer in this petition is for quashing notice dated 08.07.2022
(Annexure P1) under Section 13(2) of Securitization and Reconstruction of
Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002 (for short -
'SARFAESI Act'); notice under Section 13(4) dated 03.10.2022 of
SARFAESI Act as well as letter dated 19.06.2023 (Annexure P3) issued by
respondent No. 5 to recover the physical possession of the property of the
petitioner.
2. Notice of motion was issued in this writ petition on 05.07.2023,
while noting the statement on behalf of the petitioner that entire overdue
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amount i.e. `4,49,000/- would be deposited within one week. Needful has
admittedly not been done.
3. It is undeniable that the petitioner has an efficacious alternate
remedy for redressal of the grievance/s raised in this writ petition. Moreover,
petitioner is claiming relief qua respondent, 'ICICI Home Finance Limited',
which is admittedly a private non-banking financial company, therefore,
present writ petition is not maintainable. Gainful reference in this regard can
be made to the judgment of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Pheonix ARC
Private Limited versus Vishwa Bharti Vidya Mandir and others, 2022
(1) RCR (Civil) 888, wherein it has been held as under:-
" Even otherwise, it is required to be noted that a writ
petition against the private financial institution - ARC -
appellant herein under Article 226 of the Constitution of India
against the proposed action/actions under Section 13(4) of the
SARFAESI Act can be said to be not maintainable. In the
present case, the ARC proposed to take action/actions under the
SARFAESI Act to recover the borrowed amount as a secured
creditor. The ARC as such cannot be said to be performing
public functions which are normally expected to be performed
by the State authorities. During the course of a commercial
transaction and under the contract, the bank/ARC lent the
money to the borrowers herein and therefore the said activity of
the bank/ARC cannot be said to be as performing a public
function which is normally expected to be performed by the
State authorities. If proceedings are initiated under the
SARFAESI Act and/or any proposed action is to be taken and
the borrower is aggrieved by any of the actions of the private
bank/bank/ARC, borrower has to avail the remedy under the
SARFAESI Act and no writ petition would lie and/or is
maintainable and/or entertainable. Therefore, decisions of this
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Court in the cases of Praga Tools Corporation v. Shri C.A.
Imanual, (1969) 1 SCC 585 and Ramesh Ahluwalia v. State
of Punjab, (2012) 12 SCC 331 relied upon by the learned
counsel appearing on behalf of the borrowers are not of any
assistance to the borrowers."
4. Keeping in view the facts and circumstances as above, this writ
petition is dismissed with liberty to the petitioner to avail remedy/remedies
as may be available to it in accordance with law.
5. It is clarified that there is no expression of opinion on the merits
of the case.
(LISA GILL)
JUDGE
(RITU TAGORE)
July 27, 2023 JUDGE
rts
Whether speaking/reasoned: Yes/No
Whether reportable: Yes/No
Neutral Citation No:=2023:PHHC:096108-DB
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