STANDARD CHARTERED BANK Vs. MSTC LIMITED

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Leave granted.

(2.) The present appeal raises interesting questions which arise under the Recovery of Debts and Bankruptcy Act, 1993 (hereinafter referred to as "the RDB Act" or "the Act"). The brief facts necessary to appreciate the questions raised are as follows:-

(3.) Mr. Neeraj Kishan Kaul, learned Senior Advocate appearing on behalf of the appellant, has contended that the High Court is wrong on all counts. First and foremost, the High Court could not have looked at Order XLVII Rule 7 of the CPC in order to hold that an appeal from an order dismissing a review petition would not be maintainable before the DRAT both for the reason that Order 47 Rule 7 itself is inapplicable under Section 22(1) of the RDB Act and for the reason that Section 20 of the RDB Act makes it clear that appeals lie to the DRAT from all applications that may have been disposed of by the Tribunal under the RDB Act. He further argued that the judgment in International Asset Reconstruction Company of India Limited (supra) ought to have been applied correctly in that the ratio decidendi of the judgment made it clear that it is only applications under Section 19 that are referred to in Section 24 of the RDB Act, and this being the case, a review application, being an independent proceeding, could not be subsumed within the expression "application" contained in Section 24 of the RDB Act. He also cited the judgment reported in Kamlesh Verma v. Mayawati and Others, (2013) 8 SCC 320 to buttress the submission that a review petition cannot be equated with the original proceeding. Further, contrasting Rule 5A of the Rules with Section 20 of the RDB Act, since peremptory language has been used in the said rule, making it clear that a review petition filed beyond 30 days would have to be dismissed, coupled with the fact that no provision for condonation of delay, as in Section 20, is contained in Rule 5A would also make it clear that the impugned judgment has to be faulted on this ground as well.