DEVI ISPAT LIMITED Vs. CENTRAL BANK OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners question the propriety of the respondent nationalised bank withholding documents of title that the petitioners had furnished for obtaining credit facilities, despite the petitioners having squared up and closed the accounts at the bank's behest.

(2.) Between September 15, 2008 and April 24, 2009 the bank advised the petitioner company to shift its borrowings to some other bank. The first letter in such regard that the petitioners rely on is one dated March 24, 2009 where the bank complained to the petitioner company that despite its assurance in August, 2008, the company's accounts had not been shifted from the bank. On April 24, 2009 the bank called upon the company to remove its accounts. The insistence on the bank's part appears plain from the letter:

(3.) By the beginning of May the petitioners caused the accounts to be closed and the company instructed the bank to make over the title deeds to the company's factory premises and other collateral security to the second petitioner. The petitioners rely on the bank statements to demonstrate that the company owed nothing to the bank. On May 12, 2009 the company wrote to both the Zonal Manager and the Branch Manager of the bank that the company's borrowals had been taken over by the Chowringhee Branch of State Bank of India. The letter recorded that a banker's cheque for Rs.15 crore issued by State Bank had been encashed by the respondent bank and appropriated against the company's outstanding balances. The company complained that inspite such adjustments having been completed by May 9, 2009 the title deeds and the customary no-objection and no-dues certificates had not been made over to it by the respondent bank