Sri Shyamal Gupta, Member

This Appeal is directed against the Order dated 09-01-2017, passed by the Ld. District Forum, Unit-I (North) in CC/516/2016, whereby the complaint case has been dismissed.

The dispute pertains to a LIC Policy that the Appellant pledged with the Respondent Bank as a Collateral Security while availing of financial assistance from it. Despite proper liquidation of the said loan, as the Appellant could not realize the maturity value of LIC Policy in question, he filed the instant complaint case before the Ld. District Forum.  However, as the Ld. District Forum dismissed the said case at the admission stage itself, aggrieved with such decision, present Appeal is moved.

Initially, all the Respondents turned up before this Commission to defend their respective interests.  However, subsequently, the Respondent Nos. 1 to 5 stopped attending the present Appeal proceedings. Accordingly, at the time of hearing, I heard the Ld. Advocates for the Appellant and Respondent Nos. 6&7.  I have also perused the documents on record carefully.

A bona fide case was dismissed on totally untenable grounds.  This is the most charitable construct that can be placed upon the verdict under scrutiny.  

Out of the impression that the case was hit of limitation, the Ld. District Forum dismissed the same.  It is, however, seen from the documents on record that the Appellant was apprised of the  actual fate of the LIC Policy only in the year 2015, when it was disclosed to him by the Respondent LICI that the concerned cheque towards maturity proceeds of the LIC Policy in question was neither encashed nor returned by the Respondent Bank. In my considered opinion, therefore, the Forum below went terribly wrong in understanding the true purport of the case and derived at an erroneous decision. The case was not at all hit by limitation.

It is further noticed by me that although it was clearly mentioned in paragraph 7 of the petition of complaint that the Bank sanctioned loan against pledging of (1) Deed of Conveyance and (2) LIC Policy in question; somehow the Ld. District Forum overlooked this vital fact and under the impression that it was highly improbable for a bank to sanction loan for a whooping sum of Rs. 11,50,000/- against co-lateral security of a meagre sum of Rs. 20,000/- in the form of a LIC Policy, it dismissed the complaint case. 

Accordingly, I am constrained to set aside the impugned order and remand the case to the Forum below for fresh adjudication of the dispute purely on merit.

I, therefore, allow the Appeal in part.  Appellant to appear before the Ld. District Forum on 06-12-2019 for fresh adjudication of the complaint case in accordance with law.