The doors of the courts are not ajar but closed to “Rip Van Winkles” like former MLA Anil H. Lad, who has not only knocked on the court’s doors after nine long years of delay but with “misleading” claims, said the High Court of Karnataka.
Justice M. Nagaprasanna made these observations while dismissing a petition filed in 2024 by Mr. Lad, who is also a former member of the Rajya Sabha.
Mr. Lad had questioned the legality of an order passed by the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) in 2015 confirming the certificate of sale of a property, which was provided as guarantee to a bank for the loan given in 2008 to one of his companies, M/s V.S. Lad and Sons.
The Punjab National Bank had issued sale certificate to a firm, which had purchased the mortgaged property of Mr. Lad, in an auction held in 2014; and the DRT had confirmed the bank’s actions.
Mr. Lad had approached the court claiming that he was “unaware of the sale and he came to know about auction of his property after several years due to the alleged fraud in sale of his property played by the bank in keeping him dark about the sale.”
However, the court said that “it is a clear case where the petitioner [Mr. Lad] wants to mislead the court” while pointing out from the records that Mr. Lad himself had unsuccessfully challenged the auction before the DRT in 2014-15. The court also noted that the bank had sent him sale certificate twice through email. “The petitioner was not kept in the dark, and he cannot feign ignorance of what has been happening to his property,” the court observed.
Justice Nagaprasanna said that Mr. Lad’s case is like the story of “Rip Van Winkle”, written by Washington Irving in 1819. The story is about Rip Van Winkle who falls asleep and wakes up 20 years later only to see a changed world, having missed the American revolution.
