Break debtor’s doors, give Mapusa units to decree holders: North Goa court

Panaji: The district and sessions court in North Goa has directed the bailiff to break locks and even breach doors of the units at Prabhu Chambers at Mapusa and hand over the possession of the units to the decree holders.
The court said the action should be taken “as the judgment debtor has not given free access to the units of the decree holders”. A ‘judgment debtor’ is a person obligated to pay a debt in line with the verdict of a court.
The process, the court directed, should take place on June 27, 2023, from 11am till its completion. “The police inspector of the Mapusa police station is also directed to give police protection during this process of handing over the possession to the decree holders,” said Sherin Paul, the principal district judge.
The order said the petition was sent to the district and sessions court by a member of Goa Real Estate Regulatory Authority for the execution of its order of March 17, 2022.
The judgment debtor filed an application praying to adjourn this petition till a writ petition was decided by the high court. On May 18, 2023, the application was dismissed as the writ petition did not pertain to the present case.
By an order dated June 5, 2023, the final opportunity was given to the judgment debtor (Venkatesh Narayan Prabhu Moni) to hand over the possession of the premises to the decree holders and the matter was fixed for June 12, 2023. On that date, the judgment debtor filed another application seeking clarification for compliance with the order, the court observed.
It was submitted in the application that the temporary accommodation of the judgment debtor was seized by the mamlatdar and the keys of the allottees were lying in the temporary accommodation. It was prayed for a direction to the mamlatdar to get access to the accommodation to get the keys and hand over the same to the allottees.
“If the keys were lying in the temporary accommodation as claimed by the judgment debtor, he could have sought permission from the high court to remove the same, which he did not do,” judge Paul observed. “This shows that the judgment debtor is only trying to delay the handing over the possession to the decree holders.”