Banks have a legal responsibility to safeguard original title documents and are liable for any losses incurred due to negligence in their custody.

JUDGMENT :

RAJESH SHANKAR ---

1. The present appeal is directed against the order/judgment dated 17.04.2018 passed in W.P. (C) No. 4238 of 2012 whereby the said writ petition filed by the petitioner/original appellant- Lal Chand Mahto (since deceased) was disposed of directing the respondent- Allahabad Bank (now Indian Bank) (hereinafter referred as the said Bank) to hand over the certified copy of the sale deed to the original appellant with an undertaking that if the lost document was mis- utilized by any person, the said bank would compensate him for any loss incurred on account of misuse of the original sale deed.

2. Learned counsel for the appellant has submitted that the original appellant (the then Chairman of ‘Land Looser Sahyog Samiti Limited’) along with the present appellant being the partners of ‘Displaced Transport Company’, had taken loan from the said Bank by depositing the original sale deed in question and other original papers of the concerned land by way of usufructuary/equitable mortgage. They repaid the loan amount much before the stipulated time and thereafter approached the said Bank to return the original sale deed and other documents pertaining to their land, but the matter remained unresponded. In the meantime, the appellants’ Samiti made a request to the United Bank of India for a loan of Rs.2 crores to run the transport business which was though sanctioned, but the Bank demanded original sale deed and other documents related to the concerned land of the appellant which was to be deposited before it by way of equitable mortgage.

3. It has further been submitted that the original sale deed and other papers of the concerned landed property could not be deposited before the United Bank of India as the same were lying in the custody of the said Bank due to which the loan amount, which was sanctioned by the United Bank of India, could not be released and resultantly, the business of the ‘Displaced Transport Company’ immensely suffered.

4. It has also been submitted that the original appellant finally wrote a letter to the said Bank to return the original sale deed in question and other documents which were lying in its custody, however the respondent no. 3 informed him that the original sale deed and other original documents of the concerned land were missing. Thereafter, the original appellant filed a writ petition being W.P.(C) No. 4238 of 2012 seeking issuance of direction upon the said Bank to handover the original sale deed and other original documents of the concerned land which were deposited by him by way of usufructuary mortgage towards the loan amount.

5. The writ petition was disposed of vide order dated 17.04.2018 directing the said Bank to hand over the certified copy of the sale deed to the original appellant with an undertaking that if the lost document was mis-utilized by any person, the said Bank would compensate him for any loss which might incur on account of misuse of original sale deed.

6. It has further been urged that the business of the said co- operative society has been adversely affected for more than a decade due to fault of the said Bank and as such the damages quantified to the tune of Rs.1 crore should be indemnified by the said bank.

7. It has also been contended that the certified copy of the sale deed may be treated to be an original one in order to prevent further sufferance of business of the said co-operative society of which the appellant is the Chairman.

8. It has further been submitted that the respondent no.3 had sanctioned the loan amount on deposit of the original sale deed, however the same was not returned even after clea