Smt. Ranjana Desai, J.

1. Respondent 1 is a banking corporation incorporated under the laws of Germany having its Head Office at Kaizerplatz, Frankfurt, Germany. The petitioner-company had taken certain credit facilities from respondent 1. The petitioners did not clear the outstanding dues and, therefore, respondent bank filed Original Application No. 153 of 2001 for recovery of the said amount in the Debts Recovery Tribunal II, Mumbai (for short, “the DRT”).

2. It is the petitioner's case that after they filed their written statement in January, 2002, they came to know from the newspaper reports that respondent 1 had surrendered its banking licence in India and had stopped its banking operation in India. The petitioners therefore filed a miscellaneous application and called upon respondent 1 to produce the banking licence. Respondent 1 in its reply admitted that it had surrendered its banking licence. The petitioners, therefore, filed a miscellaneous application seeking dismissal of the original application on the ground that respondent 1 was no longer a bank as defined under the Recovery of Debts Due to Banks and Financial Institution Act, 1993 (for short, “the RDDB A