ARBIND KUMAR Vs. STATE BANK OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This civil revision by the defendant-applicant of the miscellaneous case, is directed against an order by which the court below has transferred the miscellaneous case under Order 9, Rule 13 of the Code of Civil Procedure to the Debts Recovery Tribunal ("the Tribunal", in short) in view of the provisions of the Recovery of Debts Due to Banks and Financial Institutions Act, 1993. It is not necessary to notice the facts of the case, except to mention that the opposite party-State Bank of India filed Money Suit No. 14 of 1990 in the court of the first Subordinate Judge, Begusarai, which was decreed ex parte against the petitioner on September 30, 1992. The petitioner filed Miscellaneous Case No. 25 of 1993 for setting aside the ex parte decree on September 4, 1993. An application was made by the opposite party-bank to transfer the miscellaneous case to the Tribunal established under the said Act on the ground that in terms of Section 17 of the Act it is the Tribunal alone which has jurisdiction to entertain a suit filed on behalf of the banks or financial institutions. The said application has been allowed by the impugned order.

(2.) The submission of counsel for the petitioner is that the provisions of the Act are applicable to suits or proceedings at the instance of banks and financial institutions. The present proceeding in the miscellaneous case not being at the instance of either a bank or financial institution, it does not come within the purview of the Act.

(3.) The provision regarding transfer of suits and proceedings is contained in Section 31 of the Act. The only point for consideration is whether a miscellaneous case for setting aside the ex parte decree comes within the purview of Section 31 or not.