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SEPCO Electric Power Construction Corporation v. Power Mech Projects Ltd.

Civil Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Civil Appeal Nos. 4936-4937 of 2021)Decided 24 Aug 2021
Civil Appeal Nos. 4936-4937 of 2021
Justice Indira Banerjee · Justice V. Ramasubramanian

Background

This is a split decision, not a final judgment. The High Court required SEPCO to furnish a bank guarantee. SEPCO gave one from the Mumbai branch of ICBC, a Chinese bank listed as a Scheduled Bank by the RBI. The question was whether that guarantee was enough, or whether it had to come from a Scheduled Indian Bank.

Decision Breakdown

This is a split decision, not a final judgment. Justice Indira Banerjee would have allowed the appeals and accepted the ICBC guarantee. Justice V. Ramasubramanian would have dismissed them, because SEPCO itself had earlier offered a guarantee from a Scheduled Indian Bank. Since the judges did not agree, they placed the matter before the Chief Justice of India for directions.

Lesson Learnt

There is no final ruling yet. Whether the ICBC guarantee is acceptable will be decided by another bench.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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