Earth Tech Engineering (Private) Limited and other vs People’s Bank and others – CA WRIT/789/2023-2024

In the case between Earth Tech Engineering (Private) Limited and Thambaiya Tharmasiri (Plaintiffs) and People’s Bank, its Chairman, board of directors, and associated entities (Defendants), the court addressed the issue of whether the petitioners’ challenge to the bank’s exercise of its statutory right to auction mortgaged property was legally tenable. The holding established that the lending relationship between the parties was strictly contractual, and the petitioners’ failure to repay the loan—irrespective of the alleged non-payment by a third party—did not warrant the invocation of writ jurisdiction when adequate civil remedies existed. The principle reaffirmed is that statutory rights under mortgage and contract cannot be circumvented through writ jurisdiction where an alternative rem