IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA CWJC No. 16988 of 2010 Sunil Kumar Sinha, son of late Paras Nath Singh, Proprietor of M/s Shiv Shankar Bone Mill, Adarsh Nagar, At & P.O. Harnaut, P.S. Harnaut, District- Nalanda ……….. Petitioner Versus 1. The Bihar State Financial Corporation, Fraser Road, Patna through its Managing Director 2. Managing Director, Bihar State Financial Corporation, Fraser Road, Patna 3. The Deputy Manager I/C (Zone III), Bihar State Financial Corporation, Fraser Road, Patna 4. Branch Manager, Bihar State Financial Corporation, opposite Bazar Samiti, Mangalasthan Road, District- Nalanda ……………. Respondents ------------ For the petitioner: M/s. Manik Vedsen and Subhash Chandra Bose, Advocates For the BSFC: M/s. K.D.Chatterjee & V.K.Tripathy, Advocates ------------- 2. 6.10.2010 The petitioner seeks quashing of the order dated 3.8.2010 (Annexure-8) passed by the Managing Director of the Bihar State Financial Corporation by which the petitioner’s Unit has been ordered to be sold in favour of a purchaser under the sale notice subject to the right of the original promoter, namely, the present petitioner in terms of paras 6 and 10 of the said sale order to retain the asset on matching terms and conditions within 21 days from the date of issue of sale order. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that 2 before the expiry of the said 21 days time the respondent BSFC has come forward with a One-Time Settlement Scheme, 2009 by circular dated 17.8.2010. Pursuant to issuance of the said circular the petitioner approached the Branch Manager of the BSFC on 20.8.2010 for application form but was informed that the Branch has no such information regarding O.T.S. Scheme and he continued to approach him. On 23.8.2010 he was again informed that the Branch was still not aware of the Scheme upon which the petitioner filed his request letter which he was carrying since 20.8.2010 for making application under OTS Scheme. On 26.8.2010 the petitioner again met the Branch Manager along with a copy of the OTS Scheme, 2009 for obtaining the application form but was informed that the Branch Manager had sent the petitioner’s proposal to the Head office and only after approval by the Head Office, the OTS form shall be issued to the petitioner. The attempts of the petitioner having failed, he has come to this Court. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the rights of the petitioner cannot be defeated by the sale order as the petitioner is still in possession of the Unit in question and the sale order itself had not acquired finality at least till 21 days i.e., till 24.8.2010, when the petitioner had the right to 3 make matching offer within the stipulated time. On 17.8.2010 the respondent-Corporation had come out with OTS Scheme and to apply for the benefit under the said scheme the petitioner had, as a matter of fact, approached the respondents on 20.8.2010 and gave his request letter on 23.8.2010 for the application form before the respondent-authorities. Thus, according to learned counsel the petitioner would be entitled to the benefits of the OTS Scheme upon fulfilling the other terms and conditions thereunder. Learned counsel for the BSFC submits that the application of the petitioner not having been received within the period of 21 days, he would not be entitled to the benefit of the OTS Scheme. This Court does not find any force in the submission of learned counsel for the respondents. The right of the petitioner to apply under the OTS Scheme would arise on 17.8.2010 when the said scheme was floated and the scheme itself is valid till 15.11.2010. So long as the petitioner had a right to retain the unit on the date the OTS Scheme came into operation, he would also have the right to apply for the benefit under the said scheme till the last date i.e., 15.11.2010. The petitioner having neither lost possession of nor a 4 right to retain the unit on the date of the Scheme, his right cannot be defeated by the inaction of the respondent-authorities in not giving him the application form that he had demanded. In fact, according to this Court, if he was entitled to the benefit of the OTS scheme on the date it was floated, he would have the right to apply till the last date, i.e., 15.11.2010. In the above circumstances, the prayer of the petitioner is fit to be allowed. The authorities of the respondent- BSFC are directed to accept the application form of the petitioner forthwith and consider and dispose of the same in accordance with law and in terms of what has been observed in this order. The impugned order dated 3.8.2010 shall remain in abeyance subject to the petitioner applying under the OTS Scheme within the time limit fixed in the said Scheme. The writ application is accordingly allowed with the aforesaid observations and directions. S.Pandey ( Ramesh Kumar Datta, J.)