Idbi Bank v. Mr. Uttam Lahiry
Case brief
What is this about?
Court allowed withdrawal of debt recovery application as applicant bank settled the dispute out of court and received full settlement amount. Ruled that bank is dominus litis and tribunal cannot scrutinise settlement.
What did the court decide?
IA No. 695/2024 (Transfer of Application) allowed; Transfer and Application disposed withdrawn with direction to return documents to bank.
What the court decided
| 17/04/2024 | Ex. No. |
Before Presiding Officer Dr. Rekha G. Dhakar, DRT-1, Mumbai. Roznama in TA 952 of 2023 IDBI Bank Vs Mr. Uttam Lahiry |
Next date |
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| Advocate for the Applicant present. IA No. 695/2024 |
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| 1. The Ld. Counsel appearing for the Applicant Bank seeking permission to withdraw the Original Application as they have settled the matter out of court with the defendants and received an amount towards full and final settlement of entire OA claim of Rs. 46,44,6126/-. 2. Considered the contentions of Ld. Counsel for the applicant and gone through the record as well as case laws on the subject. 3. The Hon’ble High Court of Delhi in the matter of Satish Chand Gupta & Ors. Vs. |
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| SBI-W.P © 2588/2010 held that “…..DRT can have no objection to the same as the bank which is claimant has agreed to the same. The bank is dominus litis and it is for the bank to decide as to against which party it desires the litigation to continue. |
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| It is purely a contractual matter and the |
bank in its wisdom decided to settle the claim against the petitioners…..”. It was further laid down that the Tribunal appears to think that it is some kind of Ombudsman/ Auditor of the bank to scrutinize the settlement arrived between the parties. The Tribunal is no one to decide as to at what value the bank should settle its dues with the borrower especially when the bank has Managers who have acted in pursuance to authorization in their favour and after due consideration of the proposal of the petitioners….”. 4. In the light of above, since the account impugned has already been closed in terms of settlement between the parties and Bank has already received the entire settlement amount, further the bank has dominus litis in their matter, therefore, IA No. 695/2024 is allowed and Transfer is as Application hereby disposed withdrawn. 5. The Registry of this Tribunal is hereby directed to return the complete documents of the TA to the authorized
officer of the applicant bank before the
Ld. Registrar on 01/05/2024 after
obtaining necessary acknowledgment.
However, the order sheets as well as the
plaint and necessary documents shall be
kept with this Tribunal.
6. The applicant is directed to follow the
procedure of refund of court fees as per
the DRT (Refund of Court fee) Rules 2013.
File be closed and consigned to record room.
P.O.
DRT-I
Sgj/-47
Issues for consideration
2 issues framed by the court
Whether the Debt Recovery Tribunal has jurisdiction to object to a settlement out of court reached between the bank and the borrower.
Whether the bank, as dominus litis, has the absolute right to settle its claim and withdraw the original application.
Parties & counsel
- applicant
IDBI Bank
- respondent
Mr. Uttam Lahiry
Coram
Dr. Rekha G. Dhakar
Case details
As recorded by the court registry
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