SC Directed All Courts-Tribunals To Mandatorily Deposit Amount Deposited By Parties

The Supreme Court in the case KL Suneja and others vs Dr (Mrs) Manjeet Kaur Monga (Died) through legal representatives observed and has issued an important direction that all the courts and judicial forums should frame guidelines for ensuring that the amount which is to be deposited in a bank or financial institution.

The said court issued a direction for ensuring that the litigants do not face any future loss of interest on the amount deposited before Courts. The bench comprising of Justice MR Shah and Justice S Ravindra Bhat in the case observed that the said court is of the opinion that all the courts and the judicial forums should frame guidelines in cases where amounts are deposited with the office, the registry of the court, the tribunal, that such amounts are mandatorily be deposited in a bank or some financial institution, for ensuring that no loss is caused in the future

. In the present case, the court passed the said direction while considering the predicament faced by a litigant in losing out on interest due to an unwise conduct.

The said case was fought by the litigant against a builder over delay in allotting a flat. Therefore, the complainant after paying of the 6 instalments, had refused to pay further instalments citing delay in progress of completion. The builder cancelled the allotment on 30.04.2005 (the said date is crucial). Thus, the builder along with the cancellation letter, the builder enclosed a Pay Order dated 30th April 2005 for ₹ 4,53,750/- issued by Citibank towards full refund of payments made by the complainant.

A case has been filed by the complainant before the MRTP Commission. Thus, she refused to accept the refund and did not encash the Pay Order and the complainant also annexed the Pay Order with the complaint filed before the MRTP. It has been held by the Competition Appellate Tribunal that the said complainant was entitled to compensation. The issue raised before Supreme Court was regarding the entitlement of interest for the complainant for the period from 30.04.2005