JAYLON IMPEX PVT LTD Vs. PUNJAB NATIONAL BANK

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Admit.

(2.) The 1st Respondent is the Punjab National Bank ("PNB"). The 2nd Respondent is a cooperative society, and the 3rd Respondent is a developer.

(3.) To put the controversy into a summarized context, there is no dispute that a residential flat in the Society belongs to Petitioners Nos 2 to 4 and is validly mortgaged to the PNB as security for the repayment of a loan PNB gave Petitioner No.1. The Society's building and structure is dilapidated and requires redevelopment or reconstruction. The Petitioners have asked the PNB to consent to the redevelopment. The PNB apprehends that its security will be lost, even if transitorily, while the redevelopment is going on. It maintains that without an entirely fresh set of documentation such a permission is not contemplated in law. It also expresses the apprehension that it would be impossible to create a fresh mortgage of a redeveloped residential unit that is yet to be brought into existence. Nobody has any quarrel about the statement regarding the condition of the building or that it requires redevelopment. Nobody questions the debt to the bank or the mortgage in favour of the bank. The only question is how to balance the competing equities so that the interests of all are adequately protected.