CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court has directed the SBI to pay Rs 1 lakh as compensation to a person who had cleared his loan under a one-time settlement (OTS) scheme 14 years back, but the original documents of his mortgaged property ownership had not been returned till date.
The court issued the direction recently on a petition filed by the 70-year-old Sujit Kumar Ghosh alleging that the original property documents had not been returned despite his persistence, including frequent personal visits and countless letters.
He also sought direction to the bank authorities to pay Rs 5000 per day to him from the date of issuance of the ‘No Due Certificate’ for the delay in returning the mortgaged documents.
According to case records, the petitioner had availed a loan of Rs 72,000 from a SBI branch in Cuttack in 1986. He failed to pay the loan EMIs in time and the account became NPA. The bank then initiated a loan recovery case before a local court in Cuttack.
While the case was pending, the bank settled the loan outstanding dues at Rs 1,06,337 under one-time settlement scheme (OTS) on July 26, 2010. After the petitioner paid the OTS amount the bank issued the “No Due Certificate” on December 24, 2010.
Countering the petition, the bank claimed that they cannot return the mortgaged documents as the account had been categorised as NPA and proceedings regarding it was pending before the Civil Judge (Sr Div), First Court, Cuttack.
However, the single judge bench of Justice SK Panigrahi ruled, “Once the loan was resolved, there was no legal reason for the bank to withhold the return of the title deed (mortgaged documents), regardless of the pending litigation. Therefore, the refusal to return the document is unjustifiable.”
“In light of the petitioner’s advanced age and the significant difficulties he is facing in retrieving the documents despite no fault of his own, this court directs the bank to pay him Rs 1 lakh as compensation within 30 days from the date of presentation of a copy of this judgment,” Justice Panigrahi specified.
He also directed the bank to return the original or duplicate documents to the petitioner within one month.