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Judgment
Ashok Menon, Chairperson
These are Appeals filed by Borrowers challenging the impugned order of D.R.T., Nagpur in S.A. Nos. 130/2021, 131/2021 & 132/2021. For entertaining the Appeals, it is mandatory for the Appellants to make a pre-deposit as contemplated under the second proviso in Sec. 18(1) of the SARFAESI Act.
The Appellants herein have raised several contentions regarding the insufficiency of the Sarfaesi measures invoked by the Respondent Bank. The merits of these contentions are to be decided by those S.As. Hence, I am not going to delve deep into those issues at present. The amount due in all three matters together is about 124 lacs. The Appellants contend that they had an issue with the Government regarding the supply of rice and because of that, they were under financial stress. They had also approached the Hon’ble Bombay High Court and obtained a stay regarding recovery by the Government.
The Ld. Counsel appearing for the Respondent Bank vehemently opposes these applications and states that the Appellants have not made any ground to make out the special case of reduction of amount from the mandatory 50% as required under the third proviso to Sec. 18(1) of the SARFAESI Act and therefore, it is submitted that there is no ground for invoking the third proviso of sec. 18(1) of the SARFAESI Act for reducing the amount from the mandatory 50% of the amount due.
Consideringthe facts and circumstances of the case, I find that the Appeals need not be disposed of at the threshold by not permitting the Appellants to make out the case. The impecuniosity of the Appellants is one good of the reasons for getting the mandatory amount reduced from 50%. Taking into the entire facts and circumstances of this case, I direct the Appellants to pay a sum of 44 lacs in four equal installments within a gap of two weeks each. The first instalment of 11 lacs shall be paid on or before 09.09.2022, the second installment of 11 lacs shall be paid on or before 23.09.2022, the third installment of 11 lacs shall be paid on or before 07.10.2022 and the fourth installment shall be paid on or before 21.10.2022. In case of default in payment of any of the above-referred installments, the Appeals stand dismissed automatically.
The amount shall be deposited in the form of a Demand Draft with the Registrar of this Tribunal.
As and when the said amounts are deposited, they shall be invested in term deposits in the name of Registrar, DRAT, Mumbai, with any nationalized bank, initially for 13 months, and thereafter it will be renewed periodically.
On deposit of the first instalment within a stipulated time, the Appellants shall be entitled to stay of all further Sarfaesi measures initiated against them by the Respondent.
With these observations, the I.As. are disposed of. The Respondent is at liberty to file a reply in the Appeals with an advance copy to the other side.
Post on 12.09.2022 for reporting compliance concerning payment of the first installment.