- (1.) Leave granted.
(2.) These appeals, by special leave, arise from the Judgment and Order dated 23.12.2010 passed by the Division Bench of the High Court of Karnataka at Bangalore in Writ Petition No.3531 of 2007, Writ Petition No.17320 of 2007 and Writ Petition No.17544 of 2007, whereby Writ Petition No.3531 of 2007 filed by C.L. Vimla was allowed while Writ Petition Nos.17320 and 17544 of 2007 filed by the auction purchaser and Central bank of India respectively, were dismissed.
(3.) The facts material to the present case are that Respondent No.1 C.L. Vimla who is a senior citizen aged about 85 years, is the guarantor. The appellant Central Bank of India is the Bank to whom the property involved in the present case, was mortgaged. The property involved in the present case is a residential house which was purchased by the husband of C.L. Vimla, namely, C.L.Narsimhaiah Shetty, under a sale deed dated 10.06.1997. She is in possession of the property along with other family members. Her husband, during his life time, executed a Will dated 31.05.1995 bequeathing his undivided share in favor of his sons equally and while settling the property he granted life interest in favour of the guarantor. However, he has not authorized her to sell or mortgage the property. The property was mortgaged in favour of Central Bank of India (hereinafter referred to as "the Bank") for raising a loan of Rs.17,50,000/- for family business. The business suffered loss. Consequently, as the respondents were unable to repay the mortgage amount, the Bank filed O.A. No.309/2002 before the Debt Recovery Tribunal, Bangalore. The Debt Recovery Tribunal referred the case for settlement before Lok Adalat. The High Court Legal Services Committee considered the reference and passed an award whereunder the borrower have agreed to pay Rs.33,50,000/- as final settlement of the claim of the Bank. This settlement was not within the knowledge of the guarantor C.L. Vimla as she had not signed the joint memo. One of her sons N. Surya Bhagavan has signed it. Her advocate has also signed the Joint Memo. It was only on 5.4.2006 when she learnt that the property has been ordered to be sold by auction. She also learnt about the signing of Joint Memo by N.Surya Bhagavan and the Bank. So she filed Writ Petition No.6625 of 2006 before the High Court of Karnataka for setting aside the award dated 20.03.2004 of the Lok Adalat, as far as she was concerned. The High Court by an order dated 1.06.2006, dismissed the writ petition on the ground of laches. Thereafter, she filed Writ Appeal No.899 of 2006, which was permitted to be withdrawn with liberty to approach the Lok Adalat for appropriate relief. Thereafter, the guarantor approached the Lok Adalat by filing an application under Order 9 Rule 13 read with Sections 21 and 25 of Legal Services Authority Act, 1987 on 03.10.2006.;