ALPANA KAUR DHILLON Vs. BANK OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This petition challenges the order dated 8-6-2006 passed by the Recovery Officer, order of the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT for short) dated 17-8-2006 and the order passed by the Debt Recovery Appellate Tribunal (DRAT for short) on 6-8-2007. By the aforesaid orders, the application filed by the petitioners for setting aside the auction sale of the flat bearing No.16, 3rd floor, Deonar Parijat Co-operative Housing Society, Deonar, Mumbai - 400 088 ('the said flat' for short) in favour of respondent No.9 have been rejected.

(2.) The relevant facts are that pursuant to the recovery certificate issued in favour of the respondent No.1 - Bank against respondents No.2 to 7, the said flat belonging to the respondent No.3 which was mortgaged to the Bank was put for auction. On 6-5-2005, respondent No.8 offered to purchase the said flat for Rs.14,10,000/-. On 17-5-2005, the petitioners who are sisters of respondent No.3 offered to purchase said flat for Rs.15,00,000/- and deposited Rs.7,00,000/- on the same day. The petitioners were given 15 days time to deposit the balance amount. On 30-6-2005, the petitioners deposited Rs.7,11,000/- out of said sum of Rs.15,00,000/-, thus the balance amount payable was Rs.89,000/-. On that day, respondent No.9 offered to purchase the said flat for Rs.18,00,000/-. As a result, the auction sale was postponed to 5-7-2005, so as to enable the petitioners to match the amount offered by the respondent No.9. However, on 5-7-2005, the petitioners deposited a sum of Rs.89,000/- only and made no commitment to pay amount higher than Rs.15,00,000/-.

(3.) As the petitioners failed to match the amount of Rs.18,00,000/- offered by the respondent No.9, but only offered Rs.15,00,000/-, the Recovery Officer accepted the offer of respondent No.9 on 24-8-2005, but gave further time of one month to the petitioners to raise their offer upto Rs.18,00,000/- or furnish offers higher than the amount offered by the respondent No.9. As the petitioners failed to match the offer of respondent No.9 and there were no higher bidders, the Recovery Officer confirmed the sale of the said flat in favour of respondent No.9 on 26-9-2005 for Rs.18,00,000/-. It is not in dispute that after confirmation of sale in favour of respondent No.9, the petitioners have withdrawn the amount of Rs.15,00,000/- deposited by them. Thereafter, the sale certificate was issued in favour of respondent No.9 on 29-9-2005. Subsequently, the stamp duty in respect of the sale of the said flat was paid by the respondent No.9 on 13-4-2006 and the sale was registered on 15-4-2006.