clearing of the aforesaid cheque was received at the Dadar Branch of the Bank on 21.08.2008. Due to the strike, about 6,058 instruments were pending in the inward clearing as against a usual daily average of 350. No data were kept with the RBI with regard to the Applicant Bank. This complicated the problem. Manual posting of the entries had, therefore, to be done. The Applicant Bank sent a representative to the Appellant’s Ballard Estate Branch with the cheque on 22.08.2008 to return it over the counter on being dishonoured. The Appellant Bank refused to accept the Applicant’s request with an endorsement that “funds not available in current account cannot accept late return”. According to the Applicant Bank, all other Banks except the Appellant gave consent for lodging for returns in clearing on 22.08.2008. It is further contended by the Appellant that the Appellant had already classified the account of the second Respondent as a non-performing asset (NPA) and by taking undue benefit, credited the proceeds of the cheque towards their recovery. The Applicant had sought intervention from the RBI to request the Appellant to accept the return cheque. Though meetings were held between the Banks and RBI, they proved futile. Hence, the Applicant filed the O.A. for the realisation of money from the Defendants.
