SARFAESI enforcement and interim injunction relief: prior remedies and suppressed facts defeated equitable civil protection.

Interim injunction against enforcement of SARFAESI measures was declined because the applicant had already pursued statutory and other remedies over the same mortgage and sale disputes. The Court noted that Section 17 provides the remedy to challenge measures under Section 13(4), while Section 34 excludes civil court jurisdiction in such matters. It further held that discretionary equitable relief under Order 39 Rule 1 CPC requires a prima facie case, irreparable injury, and balance of convenience, which were not established. Suppression of material facts also weighed against relief. The application was therefore dismissed with costs.

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Issues: Whether the applicant was entitled to interim injunction restraining the secured creditor and auction purchaser from acting upon the sale certificate and taking possession, in the face of prior proceedings under the SARFAESI Act and the pleaded challenge to the mortgage and sale.

Analysis: The relief sought depended on whether the applicant could show a prima facie case, irreparable injury, and balance of convenience in its favour. The Court noted that the applicant had already invoked remedies before the DRT, DRAT, this Court, and the Supreme Court in relation to the SARFAESI measures, and held that the same issues could not be reagitated. It also held that the statutory scheme of the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002 permits scrutiny of measures taken under Section 13(4) through Section 17, while Section 34 bars civil court jurisdiction in such matters. The Court further found that the applicant had suppressed material facts and had not established a case warranting discretionary equitable relief under Order 39 Rule 1 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908.

Conclusion: The applicant was not entitled to interim injunction, and the application was dismissed with costs.

Final Conclusion: The challenge to the SARFAESI sale proceedings was not permitted to proceed through interim civil relief, and the applicant failed to satisfy the requirements for discretionary injunction.

Ratio Decidendi: Where SARFAESI measures have already been pursued through the statutory remedies and prior proceedings, a civil court will not grant interim injunction absent a fresh prima facie case, and suppression of material facts justifies of equitable relief.

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