Mumbai: The city civil court has granted relief to a US-based family that nearly lost its ancestral properties across the city in a 2003 real estate fraud. The court declared two power of attorney (POA) documents, dated January 11, 1996, and December 24, 1999, void, accepting the family’s claim that they were forged and used illegally to secure a bank credit facility.
The court after 22 years declared the documents forged, and also restrained the bank, where the property was mortgaged, from taking any steps to attach, sell or transfer the property to recover its dues. The court was hearing a suit filed in 2003 by Homi Sanjana and his wife Piroja against Vasai resident Kersi Viraf Mehta, Union Bank of India, two firms Anup Impex and Challenger Imports, and their proprietors, Nitesh Sadarangani and Ashok Sadarangani, seeking to declare the POAs void.
During the proceedings, the couple passed away, and their two sons, as legal heirs, continued the case. The plaintiffs had claimed that they are members of the Sanjana family and lawful owners of ancestral lands at Kandivli and other places in Mumbai. The family claimed that except for limited authorisations earlier granted within the family, no authority was ever granted to Mehta. The plaintiffs claimed that using the POAs, Mehta executed lease deeds and a rectification deed for their properties in favour of the Sadaranganis.
The properties were allegedly leased for 99 years for a lump sum amount, without any monthly rent, and survey numbers and areas were altered through rectification. Based on these deeds, the bank extended credit facilities to the borrowers, who later settled the dues while the suit was pending. The plaintiffs argued that although the lease deeds recorded delivery of possession, no possession was ever handed over and they continued to pay taxes and statutory dues.
They contended that on the dates the documents were purportedly signed, they were in the US – a claim supported by their passports. The suit proceeded against the bank and the plaintiffs did not press the suit against the other defendants before the civil court. During the hearing, the bank resisted the claim of the plaintiffs. The bank pleaded that the suit is false, mala fide and filed to obstruct recovery proceedings initiated before the Debt Recovery Tribunal against borrower defendants.
The court noted that the bank did not produce or prove the original mortgage papers, any memorandum evidencing deposit of title deeds, proof of deposit or any record showing verification of title, authority and due diligence in accordance with law. The court accepted the arguments of the plaintiffs and held that the POAs are forged and fabricated and all derivative transactions were carried out without authority.
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