IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION
CIVIL APPEAL No. 7513 OF 2009
NATIONAL BANK LIMITED .….. APPELLANT
VERSUS
GHANSHYAM DAS AGARWAL & ORS. …..RESPONDENTS
Notice was ordered in the Special Leave Petition (now Appeal) on 9th July, 2007, but while doing so, this Court had specifically clarified that:“Pending further orders the impugned order passed by the High Court shall continue to operate”. The impugned Order decreed the suit filed by Ghanshyam Das Agarwal, who is hereinafter referred to as ‘the Exporter’, for a sum of USD 352,250 against the Appellant Bank (Defendant No.3 before the Trial Court/Single Judge) in favour of the Bank of India, which is the Exporter’s Bank. The remaining claim has been relegated for Trial. The impugned Order further clarifies that upon the payment of these decreetal dues the injunction granted by the Debt Recovery Tribunal by its Order dated April 10, 2002 shall stand vacated; and upon this payment the Orders of injunction passed by the Calcutta High Court on 22nd December, 1999 and 14th January, 2000 shall also stand vacated. The impugned Order goes further to state that the decreetal amount shall be satisfied from out of the funds lying with the American Express Bank Limited, Defendant No.2.To this extent the decreetal amount also stands satisfied. It also transpires that the Defendant No.4, M/s. Sarumeah & Sons, a proprietorship concern, has, consequent on the death of the sole proprietor, been struck off from the array of parties. In any event, since claims are posited on a Letter of Credit furnished by the Appellant, albeit, on the instructions of its now non-existent constituent, namely, M/s. Sarumeah & Sons, (hereinafter nomenclatured as the ‘Importer’) the latter is really a proforma or at best, a proper party, to the extent that the claim pertains to the subject Letter of Credit (L.C.). The decreetal amount stands satisfied and the Plaintiff/Exporter should be pragmatic enough not to expect any further recovery owing to the legal dissolution of the sole proprietorship concern, i.e., the Importer. In essence, therefore, the question raised by the Appellant is reduced to an academic one, which Courts normally abjure from answering. However, since Leave has been granted, we feel curially compelled to briefly delve into the factual matrix of the dispute….read more