Home Case Index All Cases Indian Laws Indian Laws + SC Indian Laws - 1976 (3) TMI SC This
Forgot password New User/ Regiser ⇒ Register to get Live Demo
1976 (3) TMI 228 - SUPREME COURTWhether the whole, or part of the amount sought to be attached, represented provident fund or pensionary benefits nor did the High Court go into the question? Held that:- It is possible to take a broad view that cases where public policy is involved and the court has a certain duty to observe statutory prohibitions, a wider concept of locus standi has to be taken. Any public authority interested in the matter and not behaving partially as an officious busy- body may bring to the notice of the court the illegality of the steps it proposes to take. When the court's jurisdiction is so invoked, it may be exercised without insisting on some other directly affected party, like the judgment-debtor in the instant case, appearing to defend himself. The argument that the Rajya Sabha Secretariat is different from the Union of India is a new gloss which Shri Rohatgi has put upon his contention of locus standi. He has pressed into service Articles 300 and 98(2) of the Constitution of India, neither of which is helpful or applicable. This point has the merit of novelty, little else. Consequentially, we set aside the decision of the High Court and of the executing court, but this is not the end of the matter. We direct the court of the Subordinate Judge to go into the merits of the objection raised by the Union of India as to whether the entire amount or any portion thereof held by it on behalf of the Rajya Sabha Secretariat staff, so far as the judgment-debtor in this case is concerned, represents provident fund and compulsory deposits or pensionary benefits, excluded from attachability in execution of civil decrees under the provisions already adverted to. If it is feasible to effect service of notice on the judgment-debtor, well and good, but if it is not, the court cannot absolve itself of the duty to investigate into the merits of the claim or character of the amounts, so long as the Union of India is ready to make good its contention. The appeal is allowed
|