CHENNAI: A division bench of the Madras High Court has set aside an order of the Debts Recovery Tribunal-II (DRT-II), Chennai, for “going out of its way to facilitate the foreign travel” of the proprietor of a private firm who owes a huge debt to the State Bank of India (SBI).
The order was passed on an appeal by SBI against the order of DRT-II dated November 1, 2021, which the bench described as “remarkable”. “The Tribunal appears to have gone out of its way to facilitate the first respondent’s departure from this country, short of booking a ticket and reserving the hotel,” the first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee (since transferred) and Justice PD Audikesavalu said.
The bench added, “The directions in the impugned order have done everything else to facilitate the flight of a person who is at the helm of several business entities which have defaulted in making repayments to their bankers.”
The assistant general manager of SBI’s Stressed Assets Recovery Branch filed the appeal to quash the order allowing Atul Jain, of Kiran Global Chems Limited, which has already closed down, to leave the country. The petitioner contended that DRT-II had allowed the first respondent to travel abroad from November 10-20, 2021 in the first leg of his itinerary even though it had already prohibited him from leaving the country until paying back substantial parts of the debt.