Hyderabad High Court sets aside decree on dead man obtained by Indian Overseas Bank

Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court has set aside a decree obtained by the Indian Overseas Bank under the SARFAESI Act for recovery of a loan. The court held that a decree against a dead person was to be treated as a nullity because it cannot be allowed to operate against his legal representatives.

A division bench comprising Justice P.V. Sanjay Kumar and Justice G. Shyam Prasad was allowing two petitions by Mr J. Veeraiah and others, legal heirs of one late J. Sattaiah and his tenants, challenging the decree passed by a lower court in January 2016 for recovery of a Rs 6-lakh loan availed by Vasavi Enterprises for which Sattaiah was guarantor.

The lower court passed decree to attach the house and shops belonging to Sattaiah at Sabzimandi in Karwan in the city.

The legal heirs of Sattaiah told the court that the lower court had granted the decree without giving them notice.

The bench while relying on a judgement of the Supreme Court set aside the lower court order.

The Supreme Court had held that it was a matter entirely at the discretion of the legal representative of the deceased respondent against whom a decree had been passed to decide whether he should raise the question that the decree was a nullity following the death or to abandon that technical objection and fight the case on merits.

Justice Sanjay Kumar said the settled legal position that an order passed against a dead person would be a nullity if the legal heir of the dead person does not waive his right to have the same declared as such, would ensure to the benefit of the legal heirs of late the Sattaiah.