CENTRAL BANK OF INDIA Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This writ petition has been filed by a Public Sector Undertaking under the Central Government. The petitioner is the Central Bank of India. The respondent No.3 is also a Public Sector Undertaking under the Central Government. The respondent No.3 is the India Tourism Development Corporation Ltd. (ITDC). The issue is with regard to the premises taken on licence by the Central Bank of India from the ITDC in the Ashok hotel run by the ITDC at Chanakya Puri, New Delhi. Proceedings have been taken at the instance of the ITDC under the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorized Occupants) Act, 1971. The proceedings are pending before the Estate Officer.

(2.) The primary issue that is raised is whether the respondent No.3 could have initiated those proceedings against a Public Sector Undertaking, itself being a Public Sector Undertaking under the same Central Government without first getting a clearance from the High-Powered Committee. The second question that arises is whether the petitioner could have filed this writ petition before this Court without having taken a clearance of the High-Powered Committee. In either event, if a reference to the High-Powered Committee is to be made, the matter would not be with either the Estate Officer or before this Court and would first require the clearance of the High-Powered Committee.

(3.) The learned counsel for the respondent No.3 straightaway referred to a decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Steel Authority of India Ltd. v. Life Insurance Corporation of India: AIR 1997 SC 2590. That was a case in which the Steel Authority of India had taken on rent a premises on 4th Floor of Jeevan Deep Building, Parliament Street, New Delhi, which belonged to the Life Insurance Corporation. Since the Steel Authority of India had not vacated the premises, action was taken at the instance of the Life Insurance Corporation under the provisions of the said Act. The question of whether a clearance of the High-Powered Committee was necessary or not arose before the Supreme Court as the matter ultimately reached there. The Steel Authority of India had contended that a reference to the High-Powered Committee ought to have been made. The Supreme Court, in the said decision, repelled this contention in the following manner:-