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Issues: (i) Whether the impugned orders of the Debts Recovery Tribunal could be interfered with under Article 227 notwithstanding the availability of an appeal under the Recovery of Debts Due to Banks and Financial Institutions Act, 1993; (ii) whether the Tribunal was bound to stay the debt recovery proceeding pending disposal of the criminal case; (iii) whether the applications for summary rejection, review, and adjournment were rightly rejected.
Issue (i): Whether the impugned orders of the Debts Recovery Tribunal could be interfered with under Article 227 notwithstanding the availability of an appeal under the Recovery of Debts Due to Banks and Financial Institutions Act, 1993.
Analysis: The availability of an appellate remedy does not by itself bar supervisory interference where the impugned order is without jurisdiction, arbitrary, or in violation of natural justice. The Tribunal orders in question were not final orders in the sense relevant to the appellate provision, and therefore the preliminary objection based on alternate remedy failed.
Conclusion: The objection to maintainability under Article 227 was rejected, but no interference with the Tribunal orders was warranted on that ground.
Issue (ii): Whether the Tribunal was bound to stay the debt recovery proceeding pending disposal of the criminal case.
Analysis: The recovery proceeding under Section 19 was held to be a civil proceeding in substance, and the allegations in the criminal case concerned forged bill documents rather than the demand promissory note underlying the recovery claim. The Court held that the criminal case would not prejudice the defence in the recovery proceeding and that the same issue of stay had already been rejected by the Tribunal. The Court also treated the refusal to grant stay as consistent with the principles governing simultaneous civil and criminal proceedings, including the absence of any real likelihood of embarrassment.
Conclusion: The Tribunal was not bound to stay the proceeding pending the criminal case, and the refusal to grant stay was upheld.
Issue (iii): Whether the applications for summary rejection, review, and adjournment were rightly rejected.
Analysis: The Act did not provide a procedure analogous to Order 7 Rule 11 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 for summary rejection of the recovery application, and jurisdictional objections had to be raised in the written statement and decided in the regular course. The review application disclosed no specific new matter or error apparent on the face of the record. The repeated requests for adjournment were viewed as dilatory and unsupported by sufficient cause, and the Tribunal was entitled to proceed with the hearing.
Conclusion: The refusals to summarily reject the recovery application, to review the earlier order, and to grant adjournments were upheld.
Final Conclusion: The supervisory petitions disclosed no jurisdictional error or miscarriage of justice, and the Tribunal's orders were allowed to stand so that the recovery proceeding could continue in accordance with law.
Ratio Decidendi: In the absence of jurisdictional infirmity or real prejudice, supervisory jurisdiction will not be used to stall a debt recovery proceeding by repeating stay and review requests, and a civil recovery proceeding need not be stayed merely because a related criminal case is pending.
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