1. Appellant No.1 is a Limited Company of which Appellants No.2 and 3 and Respondent No.2 are the Directors. Appellant No.1 had Current Account No.CA- 5527 with State Bank of India, Nehru Place Branch. In the year 1990 entries were being recorded by the bank pertaining to the account of its customers by means of an escota machine.

2. On 17th May, 1990, the escota machine, due to technical defect, made a wrong credit in the sum of Rs.1,86,421.57 in the account of Appellant No.1. Respondent No.1/Bank detected the aforesaid mistake on 2nd April, 1991 whereupon letters were written by the Bank to the appellants who acknowledged the liability and refunded Rs.20,000/- by cheque and promised to pay the balance in installments, but failed to honour the commitment and, therefore, Respondent No.1 filed a suit for recovery before the learned District Judge.

3. The appellants appeared before the learned Trial Court and filed a joint written statement in which they denied all the aforesaid averments made in the plaint, except the refund of Rs.20,000/-. Respondent No.2, who was defendant No.4, did not appear before the learned Trial Court and was proceeded ex parte.

.4. At the trial, Respondent No.1 produced one witness, PW-1, who proved the overdraft of Rs.1,86,721.57 created in the account of Appellant No.1 due to wrong credit

.and defect in the escota machine. The witness proved the Statement of Account-Ex.PW-1/1, letters Ex.PW-1/C, PW-1/D and legal notices Ex.PW-1/J and PW-1/S by the Bank to the appellants and letters Ex.PW-1/E, PW-1/G, PW-1/H, PW- 1/I, PW-1/Q by the appellants to the Bank.

5. The appellants did not lead any evidence in defence.

6. The appellants acknowledged the liability in their letters written to the Bank. The relevant extract of the letters by the appellants to the Bank are as under:- (i) Ex.PW-1/I letter dated 3rd April, 1991 of Appellant No.1 (signed by Appellant No.3 as its Managing Director) to the Bank in which it was stated as under:- We wish to inform you that our Accountant Shri Manoj received a telephone call from your Branch intimating that the Bank had through inadvertence credited a sum of Rs.1,86,421.57 in our aforesaid account. We have informed you that our books are with our statutory auditors at Calcutta. We have taken up the matter to verify this particular entry. We assure you that we will arrange to put adequate funds, for you to debit the principal amount to our account, without any interest charges, in case the above is found correct. It may please be noted that it will take 5 to 6 weeks to carry out the above assurance. We will request you to please wait for the said period. We once again assure you that the funds will be put at your disposal in the above time in case the entry is found to be correct. (ii) Ex.PW-1/H letter dated 27th May, 1991 of Appellant No.1 (signed by Appellant No.2 as Joint Managing Director to the Bank) in which it was stated as under:- Please refer to your letter No.CandI/91/314 dated 11 May, 91. Regarding the debit balance of Rs.1,78,841.60 in our above mentioned account we are hereby depositing Rs.20,000/- (Rupees twenty thousand only) vide Cheque No.680009 dated 27/5/91 drawn on SBI, New Guwahati. We hope to deposit the balance in 6 equal monthly installments. We hope this will meet your requirement. We will appreciate a confirmation to this effect. (iii) Ex.PW-1/G letter dated 2nd December, 1991 of Appellant No.1 (signed by Appellant No.3 as Managing Director) in which it was stated as under:- We wish to acknowledge the receipt of your letter No.CandI/91/1034 dated 11-11-1991. We have received the statement of accounts, sent by you, from October, 1989 to September 28, 1991. We are going through it. Unfortunately, our accountant is on leave and therefore, we have to request you to grant us time upto 15th December, 1991, before we can deal with the matter. Please give us an appointment on 16th December, 1991, to enable us to come and discuss with y