Once a big name in the retail business, R. Subramanian of Subhiksha Trading Services Ltd. is now spending time in jail with the courts conducting a number of cases pending against him.
The Madras High Court on Wednesday dismissed one of the cases filed by him against proceedings initiated by ICICI Bank in 2011 to recover over ₹4,066 crore.
The first Division Bench of Chief Justice Vijaya Kamlesh Tahilramani and Justice M. Duraiswamy granted special permission to the litigant, now lodged at Puzhal prison in a money laundering case, to appear and argue in person a civil revision petition filed by him challenging an order passed by the Debt Recovery Appellate Tribunal (DRAT) on February 19, 2018.
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Public money
After hearing his arguments as well as those of senior counsel A.L. Somayaji, representing the bank, the judges said the DRAT rightly reversed an order passed by the Debts Recovery Tribunal (DRT) in favour of the borrower on April 30, 2015. They said money borrowed in 2005 could not be allowed to go unrecovered.
Listing facts of the case, the Division Bench said the petitioner stood guarantor for his company. Since the company defaulted, the bank filed a suit before the DRT in 2011 for recovery of ₹4,066,93,26,627. The petitioner disputed this and insisted on cross-examination.
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The DRT reserved its verdict on the plea for cross-examination of witnesses in 2012 but did not deliver any orders for about three years. Suddenly, as a bolt from the blue, it dismissed the main suit itself in 2015 after accusing the bank of non-cooperation. However, on appeal, the DRAT reversed the DRT’s order and hence the present revision petition.