Munna Lal Sah & others vs State of Uttarakhand and others

Sudhanshu Dhulia, J.

These three writ petitions have been filed by father, mother and son separately. In all these three cases, the relief sought by them is common, which is against the recovery proceedings initiated by the Cooperative Bank for the amount which was taken by the petitioners as loan. Since the bank is a cooperative bank, once the loan amount was not returned, the matter went for arbitration under Section 71 of the Uttaranchal Co-Operative Societies Act, 2003, where the arbitral award has been passed in favour of the bank and consequently recovery is being made from the petitioners.

The case of the petitioners, on the other hand, is that due to financial hardship, they could not repay the outstanding loan amount. Petitioners have also submitted that the bank has not disclosed the entire amount deposited by them, which is liable to be adjusted against the outstanding loan amount.

There are other allegations as well.

Learned counsel for the respondent bank submitted a proposal that in case the petitioners approach the bank, the bank shall provide them entire statement of accounts and after hearing them, shall try to given them One Time Settlement and payment in easy installments shall also be considered.

In view of the aforesaid statement of the learned counsel for the respondent bank which is agreeable to the petitioners, these writ petitions are disposed of with liberty to the petitioners to approach the bank and seek redressal of their grievance either by way of a One Time Settlement or by payment in easy installments. The bank shall apprise the entire liability as well as the amount already received by the bank so that there should be transparency in the matter.

There has been a broad agreement between the parties that in case the amount is agreed to be paid in easy installments, then the amount shall be recovered within a period of two years and it shall not include the recovery charges.

Petitioners shall approach the bank within a period of three weeks from today, thereafter order be passed within further three weeks. Till then, no coercive measure shall be taken against the petitioners.

Let a certified copy of this order be issued within a period of twenty-four hours on payment of usual charges.