“The key words of Section 21 of the Act are "debt is due". A debt, even within the meaning of Section 2(g) of the said Act, may be said to be due only if it is adjudged to be due. The expression "debt is due" in Section 21 of the Act necessarily implies the quantum of money found to be due upon adjudication of the claim by a Debts Recovery Tribunal. The adjudication of a claim, ordinarily, happens only upon the conclusion of the proceedings launched under Section 19 of the Act. In some cases a part of the claim maybe adjudicated upon while the adjudication of the balance claim is postponed. It is evident, therefore, that Section 21 of the Act is restricted to a stage after the passing of the final order (and a final order may be restricted to a part of the claim and need not necessarily conclude the lis) passed by a Debts Recovery Tribunal and the requirement of a pre-deposit is only for a would-be appellant from whom an ascertained sum is adjudged to be due to a bank or a financial institution or a consortium of banks or financial institutions. Section 21 of the Act, by its very nature, cannot apply to appeals from orders made prior to adjudging the would- be appellant to be a debtor to a bank or a financial institution or a consortium of banks or financial institutions. Indeed, the quantum of pre-deposit as recognised in Section 21 of the Act is a percentage of "the amount of debt so due from him as determined by the Tribunal under section 19" as the closing words of the body of the section indicates. The operative words of the section may, for the present purpose, be read thus:
