Yalamachili Jahnavi vs Reserve Bank Of India & Ors.

This Writ Petition is filed questioning the action of the respondent no.2 in harassing the petitioner and his family members by sending loan recovery agents to the house of the petitioner, by making continuous phone calls and humiliating him in front of neighbours without following the guidelines issued by Reserve Bank of India vide Memo No.RBI/2022-23/108, dated 12.08.2022.

Heard Sri Satya Sreenivasa Rao, learned counsel for petitioner, Sri Kunuku Rajasekhar, learned Standing Counsel for respondent no.2 and learned Government Pleader for Home for respondent nos. 3 & 4.

Perused the record and considered the submissions made by the learned counsel for the parties.

The Hon’ble Apex Court in ICICI Bank Ltd. V. Prakash Kaur and others^{11.(2007) 2 SCC 711 n} has categorically held that the practice of hiring recovery agents, who are musclemen, is deprecated and needs to be discouraged. The Bank should resort to procedure recognized by law if the borrower have committed default in payment of the installments instead of taking resort to strong arm tactics. However, as the respondents contend that they never sent agents and they have an intention to follow law for recovery, there is no purpose in keeping the writ petition pending, as such, this Court is inclined to dispose of the writ petition.

In view of the above, respondent no.2 should resort to procedure recognized by law if the borrower have committed default in payment of the installments instead of taking resort to strong arm tactics.

Accordingly, the writ petition is disposed of. However, the respondent no.2 is not precluded to take steps in accordance with law for recovery of money, if any, payable by the petitioner. There shall be no order as to costs.

As a sequel, miscellaneous applications, pending if any, shall stand closed.