TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2002 (12) TMI 508
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....ged failure to comply with the terms and conditions of loan granted to it; similar failure was alleged by three Directors and three guarantors. On 14-2-2001 Citation for recovery was issued by the Tehsildar, Varanasi, for recovery of the alleged dues as arrears of land revenue. appellant challenged the said action before the Allahabad High Court in CMWP No. 13738 of 2001 on the ground that after the enactment of the Act, the proceedings were not maintainable. Reliance was placed on the provisions contained under section 32 of the State Financial Corporation Act, 1951 (in short 'the Financial Act') to contend that no other proceeding is permissible to be taken under the Act. Reference was made to sections 17 and 34 of the Act to substantiate his stand. Stand of the Corporation before the High Court was that alternative modes of recovery were prescribed under different statutes and one cannot stand on the way of the other mode. Choice was left upon to the Corporation to act either under the Act or under the modes permissible under the Financial Act. Proceedings initiated under the U.P. Act were covered by the said Act. A Division Bench of the High Court on consideration of the rival ....
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....ad into sub-section (2) of section 34 of the Act by application of the principle known as casus omissus and the deficiency, if any, can be reconciled by purposive interpretation by reading the said statute as a whole, and finding out the true legislative intent. In order to appreciate the rival submissions a few provisions throwing light on the controversy need to be noted. Act : "34. Act to have overriding effect.-(1) Save as otherwise provided in sub-section (2), the provisions of this Act shall have effect notwithstanding anything inconsistent therewith contained in any other law for the time being in force or in any instrument having effect by virtue of any law other than this Act. (2) The provisions of this Act or the rules made there under shall be in addition to, and not in derogation of, the Industrial Finance Corporation Act, 1948 (15 of 1948), the State Financial Corporations Act, 1951 (63 of 1951), the Unit Trust of India Act, 1963 (52 of 1963), the Industrial Reconstruction Bank of India Act, 1984 (62 of 1984), the Sick Industrial Companies (Special Provisions) Act, 1985 (1 of 1986) and the Small Industries Development Bank of India Act, 1989 (39 of 1989). ....
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....on such payment the proceedings shall be stayed and the person against whom such procee-dings were taken may make a reference under or otherwise enforce an arbitration agreement in respect of the amount so paid, and the provisions of section 183 of the Uttar Pradesh Land Revenue Act, 1901, or section 287-A, of the Uttar Pradesh Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act, 1950, as the case may be, shall mutatis mutandis apply in relation to such reference or endorsement as they apply in relation to any suit in the civil court." Allahabad Bank's case ( supra) did not specifically deal with section 34(2) of the Act. However certain observations made in the said judgment are of relevance : "20. We shall, refer to sections 17 and 18 in Chapter III of the RDB Act which deal with adjudication of the debt: '17. Jurisdiction, powers and authority of Tribunals.-(1) A Tribunal shall exercise, on and from the appointed day, the jurisdiction, powers and authority to entertain and decide applications from the banks and financial institutions for recovery of debts due to such banks and financial institutions. (2) An Appellate Tribunal shall exercise, on and from the appointed day, the j....
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....ticle 226 or 227 of the Constitution). This is the effect of sections 17 and 18 of the Act. (p. 420)" Section 34 of the Act consists of two parts. Sub-section (1) deals with the overriding effect of the Act notwithstanding anything inconsistent therewith contained in any other law for the time being in force or in any instrument having effect by virtue of any law other than the Act. Sub-section (1) itself makes an exception as regards matters covered by sub-section (2). The U.P. Act is not mentioned therein. The mode of recovery of debt under the U.P. Act is not saved under the said provision i.e. sub-section (2) which is of considerable importance so far as the present case is concerned. Even a bare reading therein makes it clear that it is intended to be in addition to and not in derogation of certain statutes; one of which is the Financial Act. In other words, a Bank or Financial institution has the option or choice to proceed either under the Act or under the modes of recovery permissible under the Financial Act. To that extent, the High Court's conclusions quoted above were correct. Where the High Court went wrong is by holding that proceedings under the U.P. Act were permi....
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....i) of the proviso to section 6(1), but also by a non-prescribed period. Same can never be the legislative intent. Two principles of construction - one relating to casus omissus and the other in regard to reading the statute as a whole - appear to be well-settled. Under the first principle a casus omissus cannot be supplied by the Court except in the case of clear necessity and when reason for it is found in the four corners of the statute itself but at the same time a casus omissus should not be readily inferred and for that purpose all the parts of a statute or section must be construed together and every clause of a section should be construed with reference to the context and other clauses thereof so that the construction to be put on a particular provision makes a consistent enactment of the whole statute. This would be more so if literal construction of a particular clause leads to manifestly absurd or anomalous results which could not have been intended by the Legislature "An intention to produce an unreasonable result", said Danckwerts, L.J., in Artemiou v. Procopiou 1996 1 QB 878, "is not to be imputed to a statute if there is some other construction available". Where to....