2005 Supreme(Guj) 844
Gujarat High Court
Judgename :M.R.SHAH
VERAVAL MERCANTILE CO OP.BANK LTD.THRO.NAGINBHAI DESAI - Appellant
Versus
RESERVE BANK OF INDIA - Respondent
SPECIAL CIVIL APPLICATION 6977 of 2005
Decided On : 12/29/2005
Headnote:
Special Civil Application - Special Civil Application is concerned, the same is filed by Veradale Mercantile cooperative Bank Ltd for an appropriate, writ, order or direction quashing and setting aside the order passed by the Registrar, Cooperative Societies, state of in purported exercise of powers under clause 7 of the Revised Guidelines for OTS of Non- performing Assets of Primary Cooperative Banks declared by RBI and by which the Registrar, Cooperative societies, State , has granted permission/directed the petitioner to extend the benefit of OTS Scheme in favour of respondents - Held, It is therefore held that the direction of the Registrar, cooperative Societies extending the benefit of the OTS Scheme in favour of respondents no. 5 and 6 is not binding upon the petitioner - It is further held, in the facts and circumstances of the case, that the decision of the respondent No. 3, Registrar, cooperative Societies, is illegal, arbitrary, and dehors the guidelines of the OTS scheme and the same is hereby quashed and set aside - Special Civil Application filed by the bank is allowed - Rule is made absolute to the aforesaid extent, however, there will be no order as to cost - Consequently, the cross petitions, being Special Civil application - Application dismissed. (Para 14)
( 2 ) A short but an interesting question of law arises in this group of petitions whether a Cooperative Bank is bound to give the benefit of One Time Settlement Scheme (ots Scheme) floated by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and/or bound by any direction issued by the Registrar, cooperative Societies, State of Gujarat, directing the cooperative Bank to give benefit of OTS Scheme to judgment debtor and/or to a person who has taken loan and/or financial assistance from a Cooperative Bank and there are dues of the Cooperative Bank, irrespective of the fact whether such a Cooperative Bank is in a position to recover the amount due to it from the said persons and/or out of securities or from guarantors and/or out of property of such guarantors, and/or whether it is mandatory for such Cooperative Bank to grant benefit of ots Scheme irrespective of the fact whether such cooperative Bank is in a position to recover the entire amount from the property of the customer/loanee who has taken a loan and/or from his guarantor.
( 3 ) SO far as Special Civil Application No. 14061 of 2005 is concerned, the same is filed by Veraval Mercantile cooperative Bank Ltd (hereinafter referred to as "the bank") for an appropriate, writ, order or direction quashing and setting aside the order dated 30th October 2004 passed by the Registrar, Cooperative Societies, state of Gujarat in purported exercise of powers under clause 7 of the Revised Guidelines for OTS of Non- performing Assets of Primary (Urban) Cooperative Banks declared by RBI and by which the Registrar, Cooperative societies, State of Gujarat, has granted permission/directed the petitioner to extend the benefit of OTS Scheme in favour of respondents No. 5 and 6.
( 4 ) SO far as Special Civil Applications No. 6958 of 2005 and 6957 of 2005 are concerned, the same are filed by the judgment-debtors, i. e. , respondents No. 5 and 6 of special Civil Application No. 14061 of 2005 for an appropriate, writ, direction or order directing the Bank to grant the benefit of OTS Scheme as per the direction/decision of the Registrar, Cooperative societies, State of Gujarat, dated 30th October 2004 which is impugned in the Special Civil Application No. 14061 of 2005. The respective parties are referrred as per their position as per the committee of Special Civil application No. 14061 of 2005. It is the case on behalf of the Bank that respondent No. 5 was the Chairman of the bank for last about 25 years and respondent No. 6 remained director of the Bank from 1997 to 1998. Thereafter in 1998, the respondent No. 5 ceased to be Chairman of the bank and the respondent No. 6 also ceased to be Director of the Bank. It is the case on behalf of the Bank that rbi is an authority authorized to carry out inspection of the petitioner Bank and accordingly periodical inspections have been carried out by the Inspection Teams of the RBI and from time to time various details were called for by the RBI, Urban Banks Department, and pursuant to the scrutiny made by the Urban Banks department of the information sent by the Bank in a statement in Proforma 1 and 2 for the quarter ended on 30th June 1996 and 30th September 1996, it was found that all types of advances (Secured and Unsecured) granted to the then Chairman, Shri Rajnikant R. Shah (respondent no. 5 herein)/his relatives and connected group which amounted to Rs. 252. 36 lakhs as on 30th June 1996 and 30th september 1996 respectively were in excess of the maximum permissible limit of 50 per cent of the Banks Capital funds and the Bank was asked to recover the excess amount under advice to the RBI vide communication dated 30th november 1996. By communication dated 17th January 1997 from the Assistant General Manager, RBI. The Bank was directed to take necessary steps so as to regularize the position immediatel