SANJAY KISHAN KAUL, J. - (1.) M /s Punjab National Bank filed an OA before the Debt Recovery Tribunal, Jaipur (Rajasthan) seeking recovery of Rs. 4,44,60,002.08/ - against M/s Rama Fibres Limited being the principal borrower with the two guarantors arrayed as the second and third defendant. The other financial institutions were arrayed as the fourth to seventh defendants, while M/s Kartar Carriers Private Limited was arrayed as the eighth defendant (petitioner herein) and another carrier M/s Chadha Motors as the ninth defendant. The OA was based on various facilities extended to M/s Rama Fibres Limited which had defaulted in payment of the loan facilities. The petitioner was arrayed as defendant No. 8 as a carrier and a prayer was made seeking recovery of Rs. 8,53,147/ -, while a sum of Rs. 5,50,114/ - was sought to be recovered from respondent No. 9. The allegation was that these carriers had not handed over the goods to the consignee as the documents had not been negotiated. It is the case of the bank that they had not endorsed the goods receipts issued to any third party and, thus, there could be no occasion to hand over the goods either to the third party or the consignor and the carrier was duty bound to hand over the goods to the bank which they failed to do.
(2.) THE application was allowed in terms of the prayers made holding, inter alia, the petitioner liable for the amount as prayed for. The appeal was preferred before the Debts Recovery Appellate Tribunal initially by only M/s Chadha Motors, but subsequently the petitioner before us was transposed as the second appellant. Some additional evidence was also permitted to be produced by the Debts Recovery Appellate Tribunal on an application being made by the appellants. The Debts Recovery Appellate Tribunal in terms of its judgement dated 13.01.2010 discussed the factual controversy qua the goods which were carried by the carriers. The freight charges had been taken by the carriers from M/s Rama Fibres Limited (which incidentally had gone into liquidation in the meantime and was represented by the official liquidator) and the goods had to be delivered to the designated parties as per instructions of M/s Rama Fibres Limited. The claim of the bank against the transporters was based on the bills against which the goods were booked and had not been retired/discounted by the parties and, thus, remained unpaid. The total amount of the bills which were not retired were to the tune of Rs. 9,25,960/ -. The case of the bank was that the goods receipts (GRs) had been issued by the transporters in the name of the Punjab National Bank as consignee and, thus, they could not have been delivered to any third party without due endorsement being made by the bank in favour of the third party. No such endorsement was made. Thus, the carriers were duty bound to deliver the goods either to the consignee which was the bank or to its endorsee in whose favour the goods receipts (GRs) would have been endorsed by the bank. It appears that the case of the bank was that possibly the goods had been delivered to the consignor being M/s Rama Fibres Limited which was impermissible.
(3.) THE Debts Recovery Appellate Tribunal has referred to the additional evidence brought on record more specifically a communication dated 10.07.1995 to the petitioner herein. In the said communication, after recording the documents negotiated by the bank of M/s Rama Fibres Limited, it was stated as under: - "We understand from our B/o Meerut that above said have not been honoured/paid by the drawee M/s Suresh Trading Company. So, it is expected that goods must be lying intact in your godown at Meerut. We are well aware that our interest is involved as bank has already financed against these goods. Please note that under any circumstances goods must not be delivered/part with to safeguard the bank's interest. Failing compliance we shall be constrained to lodge a complaint to IBA for black listing of your company. Meanwhile, please acknowledge the receipt, confirming therewith the goods covered by above GR's are intact." ;