TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2014 (9) TMI 1064
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....e of deciding this Petition are as under:- 4. Petitioner is a Company incorporated under the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956 and was engaged in the business of operating a scheduled airline known as "Kingfisher Airlines" till its operation was suspended on 21st October, 2012. Petitioner received a notice dated 19th August, 2014 addressed by Respondent No.2 - Bank mentioning therein that "appropriate Committee" of Respondent No.2 - Bank had approved the proposal of Respondent No.2 to include the name of the Petitioner and others in the list of wilful defaulters as per the guidelines of Reserve Bank of India ("RBI"). The said notice calls upon the Petitioner to submit his representation within fifteen days. 5. It is the case of the Petitioner that similar notices have been issued by other Banks as well against the Petitioner and the Petitioner wrote a letter to Respondent No.2 calling upon them to furnish copies of all documents, material, invoices etc. relied upon by Respondent No.2 including Investigative Report of Ernst & Young dated 11th August, 2014. Reliance has been placed by the Petitioner on the Master Circular of RBI. Petitioner, in the meantime, submitted his repre....
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....urt had directed the Punjab National Bank to supply all relevant documents. Our attention has been also invited to certain documents which had come to the knowledge of the Petitioner after filing of the Petition. Reliance has been placed on the E-Report dated 10/9/2014 in which a reference was made to the forensic audit by consultancy firm Ernst & Young and also to other documents annexed to the application. He submitted that, therefore, Respondent No.2 is duty bound to supply these documents. 10. On the other hand, Mr. De Vitre the learned Senior Counsel appearing on behalf of Respondent No.2 submitted that only those documents which were relied upon by the Scrutiny Committee could be provided. He submitted that in the said notice dated 19th August, 2014 no reference whatsoever was made about the investigative report of Ernst & Young and, as such, the Scrutiny Committee had, after objectively considering the documents referred to in the notice, come to the conclusion that the case of the Petitioner deserves to be included in the list of wilful defaulters. He submitted that in the case of Punjab National Bank, a specific reference was made in the notice that they had relied on the....
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....ave been mentioned in clause 3. Clause 3, in our view, is a relevant clause which would be relevant for the purpose of deciding the issue raised in this Petition. Clause 3 reads as under:- "3. Grievances Redressal Mechanism Banks/FIs should take the following measures in identifying and reporting instances of wilful default: (i) With a view to imparting more objectivity in identifying cases of wilful default, decisions to classify the borrower as wilful defaulter should be entrusted to a Committee of higher functionaries headed by the Executive Director and consisting of two Gms/DGMs as decided by the Board of the concerned bank/FI. (ii) The decision taken on classification of wilful defaulters should be well documented and supported by requisite evidence. The decision should clearly spell out the reasons for which the borrower has been declared as wilful defaulter vis-a-vis RBI guidelines. (iii) The borrower should thereafter be suitably advised about the proposal to classify him as wilful defaulter along with the reasons therefor. The concerned borrower should be provided reasonable time (say 15 days) for making representation against such decision, if he so desires, t....
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....therefore of the view that submissions made by the learned Senior Counsel appearing on behalf of Respondent Nos.2 to 4 cannot be accepted. 18. The judgment on which reliance has been placed by the learned Senior Counsel appearing on behalf of Respondent No.2, in our view, will not strictly apply to the facts of the present case. In Krishna Chandra Tandon vs. The Union of India (1974) 4 SCC 374, the issue which fell for consideration before the Apex Court was regarding the departmental inquiry and supply of documents in the said inquiry and the contention of the appellant in the said case that since inspection of relevant documents and copies of documents were not given, no reasonable opportunity was given to defend himself was not accepted. In this context, the Apex Court had, in para 16 of its judgment, observed as under:- "16. Mr. Hardy next contended that the appellant had really no reasonable opportunity to defend himself and in this connection he invited our attention to some of the points connected with the enquiry with which we have now to deal. It was first contended that inspection of relevant records and copies of documents were not granted to him. The High Court....