A person who is not a party to a contract cannot enforce the contractual obligation.

JUDGMENT :

1. The present petition has been filed by the petitioner with the following prayers:

“In view of the facts and circumstances mentioned above it is most humbly prayed that this Hon’ble Court may graciously be pleased to:

(a) Direct the Respondent No.1 to take a decision on the Assignment pertaining to the sale of the Loan Account of the Petitioner belonging to the Dena Bank i.e. Respondent No.2 herein, with respect to which a bid has already been placed by Edelweiss Asset Reconstruction Company Limited i.e. Respondent No.3, and which has been accepted by the Respondent No.2, within reasonable time preferably within one week;

(b) Alternatively, direct the respondent No.2 to go ahead with the assignment of Loan of the Petitioner to Respondent No.3 without waiting for the formal approval of the Respondent No.1 and

(c) Direct Respondent No.2, to keep its insolvency application in abeyance since the entire exercise related to sale of asset has been completed by Respondent No.2 and Respondent No.3 has already been selected as highest bidder.

(d) Pass such other and further orders as may be deemed fit and proper in the facts and circumstances of the case.”

2. It is the case of the petitioner in the writ petition that it had on December 17, 2008 entered into a facility agreement with State Bank of India, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Indore, Dena Bank, Bank of India and Vijaya Bank (hereinafter referred as ‘Consortium Lenders’) for providing term loan facility of Rs.250 crores. The State Bank of India was appointed as the lead Bank. That pursuant to the said facility agreement, the consortium lenders entered into Inter creditor Agreements on December 17, 2008, August 28, 2010 and finally May 29, 2012. That additional Inter Creditor Agreement dated August 28, 2010 was executed on account of an additional facility granted by the consortium lenders of Rs.52 Crores. An additional facility agreement was granted by the State Bank of India in the form of a bank guarantee of Rs.10 Crores. The final Inter Creditor Agreement dated May 29, 2012 was executed on account of a Facility Agreement dated May 29, 2012 executed between the petitioner and the consortium lenders to inter-alia synchronize the repayment schedule/resetting of term loan repayment installments sanctioned and disbursed by the consortium lenders, which in effect novate the terms of the foregoing facility agreements. The said final facility agreement was conceived to cover the cumulative amount of money lent by the consortium lenders in the sum of Rs.312 Crores.

3. It is the case of the petitioner that in terms of the recitals F, G, H, I and J of the final facility agreement, the consortium lenders were to act in consonance such that any such action must be initiated by the lead bank or lenders’ agent. It is averred that the petitioner was servicing the facility provided by the consortium lenders, since the commencement of repayment schedule, as per the facility agreement, in October 2010 till July 2012. It is, however, due to unavoidable and unforeseen circumstances, inter-alia inordinate delays in grant of various licenses and completion certificate by Delhi Development Authority and unplanned opening of hotels in Aero city due to which the inventory of rooms in Delhi doubled. The final license was granted by Delhi Pollution Control Committee on July 10, 2013. These events eventually led to financial stress for the petitioner, compounded by the continued mounting of interest, as a consequence of which the consortium lenders classified the credit facilities sanctioned by them as NPA on July 29, 2012.

4. It is the case of the petitioner that in the interregnum between the declaration of NPA, dated July 29, 2012 and the agreed repayment plan dated February 01, 2017 a number of assignments of interests took place pursuant to the provisions of Section 5 of the Securitization and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002. It is stated tha