JUDGMENT

Dr. ARIJIT PASAYAT, J. —

1.Leave granted.

2.Challenge in this appeal is to the order passed by a Division Bench of the Allahabad High Court dismissing the writ petition filed by the appellant. Challenge in the writ petition was to the recovery proceedings initiated against him under Uttar Pradesh Public Money’s recovery of Dues Act, 1972 (in short the ‘Act’). Prayer was to quash the citation issued by the Tehsildar principally on the ground that the proceedings are without jurisdiction as the respondent cannot proceed against the appellant as a guarantor unless and until the property of the principal debtor is sold. Since the recovery proceedings were initiated in the year 1993, recovery citation during the pendency of the earlier writ petition was illegal and therefore the appellant was entitled to get protection in view of what has been stated by this Court in Pawan Kumar Jain v. Pradeshiya Industrial and Investment Corporation of U.P.,1 [2004 (6) SCC 758].

3.Respondents on the other hand supported the action taken relying on a decision of this Court in Kailash Nath Agrawal v. Pradeshiya Industrial and Investment Corporation of U.P. ,2 [2003 (4) SCC 305]. It was also pointed