SHIJU MANI Vs. CSB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These writ petitions are filed by petitioners who are in possession of rooms/shoprooms of a commercial building. They are aggrieved by the proceedings initiated by the 1st respondent-Catholic Syrian Bank to take over physical possession of the premises invoking the provisions of the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002, as the borrower landlord failed to discharge his debt due to the Bank.

(2.) The facts involved in both these writ petitions are more or less identical and the disputed property is of the 4th respondent in W.P.(C) No.25857/2023 (the 3rd respondent in W.P.(C) No.26154/2023). The petitioner in W.P.(C) No.25857/2023 states that his father Kurian Mani took a property on ground rent in the year 1953 from one Mr. Jacob Kurian and Mrs. Mariamma. Father of the petitioner constructed a building in the property and the building is used for various commercial activities. Legal heirs of late Kurian Mani released their rights in favour of the petitioner and thereafter the petitioner is conducting a Hotel in the property.

(3.) The petitioner states that in the year 2008, by a registered Sale Deed, the 4th respondent purchased the property along with tenanted premises from its prior owners. In the year 2012, the 4th respondent filed Ext.P3 RCOP No.13/2012 in the Rent Control Court, Kottayam seeking to evict the petitioner. In Ext.P3 RCOP, the 4th respondent admitted that tenancy of the petitioner started in the year 1966. The RCOP was dismissed by the Rent Control Court as per Ext.P4 order dtd. 10/2/2014.