RESERVE BANK OF INDIA Vs. LAXMAN MAHADEO DEVARE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By this application, the applicant seeks setting aside of an order dtd. 24/12/2013 and rejecting Report No. 168 of 2013 filed by the Official Liquidator in the above company petition. The applicant also seeks a declaration that a Sale Certificate dtd. 11/4/2014 issued by the Official Liquidator pursuant to the impugned order is null and void ab initio and to set aside the said Sale Certificate. Certain other reliefs are claimed in relation to mutation entries in the alternative. However, at the hearing of this application today, Mr. Gaonkar has restricted the relief sought to prayer clauses (a) and (b). The respondents in the application are (i) the Reserve Bank of India, the original petitioners at whose instance Bank of Karad Ltd. was ordered to be wound-up, (ii) Liquidator of Bank of Karad, (iii) legal heirs of one Giriraj Chudasama and the remaining respondents 3 to 5 are purchasers of the property, which forms subject matter of the Sale Certificate. The application is opposed by all the respondents-the main contestants are the purchasers of the property. FACTS:

(2.) The applicant, an individual, is said to be a resident of Pune and claims to have acquired the plot admeasuring 90 R bearing survey no. 95/8, Old No. 95/1/2 in village Susgaon, Taluka Mulshi, District Pune. The plot was acquired from the original respondent no. 2 (late Chudasama) (sine deceased) and the applicant claims to be in possession as on date. He claims under a registered Sale Deed dtd. 9/10/1989. Late Chudasama is alleged to have perpetrated a fraud in collusion with some other respondents to secure the order and the sale certificate impugned in this application. It transpires that on 24/12/2014, this court allowed Official Liquidator's Report No. 168 of 2013 (OLR) in terms of prayer clause (a), accepting the recommendations of the Official Liquidator. The OLR sought approval by a compromise proposal made by late Chudasama who had guaranteed a loan availed of by one M/s. Drillwell, a proprietary concern of one Vijay Mahajani. Since the principal debtor had not repaid the loan, the bank filed a recovery suit before the Civil Judge, Senior Division, Pune. The claim was about Rs.15.95 lakhs. The bank being under liquidation is stated to have continued its efforts to recover the amount, it attached the property being subject matter of this application. The guarantor then who offered to pay over a sum of Rs.10.00 lakhs, to be recovered from sale proceeds of the plot. Late Chudasama represented to the bank that he was owner of the plot which was not cultivable, non-accessible being without an approach road. However, respondent nos. 3 to 5 were interested in purchasing the plot despite being a hill top/hill slope. The report represented that the title in the plot vests in Bank of Karad and late Chudasama had undertaken to give an NOC if they proceed to sell the plot to respondents 3 to 5 and recover the sale proceeds in full and final settlement of the loan outstanding. Thus, the compromise proposed acceptance of Rs.10.00 lakhs as full and final settlement towards book outstanding of Rs.7.56 lakhs. This was a report that was placed before the court. The prayer clause (a) of the report, which is allowed, reads as under:-

(3.) Similar proposals are said to have been made in other cases in Liquidator's Report No. 163 of 2009 and 164 of 2010. The orders passed by the court have been relied upon in the subject report. The court was thus persuaded to accept the liquidator's recommendations and the liquidator executed a Sale Certificate on 11/4/2014, copy of which appears at Exhibit A-2.