UNITED AGENCIES Vs. AHMEDABAD MERCANTILE CO OPERATIVE LIMITED

JUDGEMENT

(1.) . The respondent-bank filed Arbitration Suit No. 1951 of 1993. An ex-parte decree came to be passed in the above suit on 1.11.1994. The petitioners filed restoration application No. 2/96 which came to be rejected by the Board of Nominees. The petitioners thereupon preferred Appeal No. 94 of 1996 which came to be dismissed by the Gujarat State Co-operative Tribunal on 3.4.1998 on the ground that the learned advocate for the petitioners was not present when the appeal was called out for hearing. Thereafter, the petitioners filed restoration application No. 17 of 1998 which also came to be rejected by the Tribunal on 4.9.1999. The present petition was filed in October, 1999 for challenging the judgment and order of the Tribunal in appeal as well as on restoration applications.

(2.) . At the hearing of this petition, the learned counsel for the petitioners submits that the Tribunal ought to have granted the restoration applications when the petitioners had shown that the petitioners had bona fide acted by paying a substantial amount of Rs.2,92,214.00 as against the bank's claim for Rs.3,40,651-80 plus interest from the date of the suit.

(3.) . It appears to the Court that in such cases each matter is required to be decided in the facts and circumstances of the case. There is, however, some substance in the contention being urged on behalf of the petitioners that when the petitioners had made substantial payments during pendency of the proceedings before the Tribunal, the Tribunal ought to have taken the same into consideration before passing any final orders rejecting the restoration applications.