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L.N. Revathy

Unable to put up with the DRT's lethargic functioning, the bankers had drawn the attention of the Finance Ministry, Chief Justice, Debt Recovery Appellate Tribunal and the Indian Banks Association to their grievances.

COIMBATORE, Dec. 18

BANKERS, who all along maintained that the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) was the forum for effecting speedy recovery of their dues, have finally come out in the open, expressing dissatisfaction about the functioning of the DRT.

Their discontent has stemmed from the poor performance and ineffective functioning of the DRT in Coimbatore in the last six months. Unable to put up with the DRT's lethargic functioning any longer, the bankers had drawn the attention of the Finance Ministry, Chief Justice, Debt Recovery Appellate Tribunal (DRAT) and the Indian Banks Association (IBA) to their grievances.

According to banking circles, even after eight months of full-fledged functioning, the DRT in Coimbatore proved to be a non-starter. "Not a single final order has been passed or recovery certificates issued till date," a senior bank official told Business Line.

The snail's pace at which the DRT was functioning seemed to have ppunctured the bankers' faith in the system itself. "Nothing is moving," industry insiders lamented.

The cases pending adjudication have peaked to 2,700 within a period of six months. Over 88 per cent of these cases (numbering 2,400) had been transferred from Chennai following the Finance Ministry's announcement early this year of a DRT in Coimbatore. Approximately 1500 of the transferred cases had reached the trial stage and even arguments were heard and recovery certificates issued.

Yet the Presiding Officer is understood to have issued fresh summons in all these cases irrespective of the stage reached at the time of transfer. "The process starts all over again — from serving summons, filing reply, filing proof of affidavit etc, leading to a clear delay of nearly 4 to 5 months on some pretext," senior officials said.

Bank officials further pointed out that they had great difficulty in finding out the details of other unencumbered assets of the defendants and in moving the court for attaching these properties. "Normally, the Court issues a notice calling upon the party to furnish security to the extent of the debt guaranteed, and only after hearing him, attaches the property. Once the property is attached, the party is under tremendous pressure to settle the matter. Here, a major chunk of the interlocutory applications are hanging fire," the official explained and added that out of the 300-odd interlocutory applications, less than 20 were understood to have been disposed of.

Following the bankers' joint plea, seeking immediate intervention into these issues, the Chairperson of DRAT, Ms. Subbulakshmi, is understood to have come over. Reliable sources state that she had identified `major lacunae' in the functioning of the Presiding Officer and the Registrar.

It is learnt that she had directed the PO and the registrar to show improvement within the next three months. However, bankers perceive no change in the functioning of the DRT, even a month after the receipt of such direction.

Meanwhile, the bankers are now deliberating to take up the issue on appointment of the DRT Presiding Officer through IBA to the Ministry. It is perceived that they are looking at a judicial officer instead of a bureaucrat for appointment to such post.

An amount involving Rs1,20,000 crore has turned sticky. Bankers have been able to recover Rs 4000 crore, a major chunk of which was settled out of Court.

"Though the Securitisation Bill has been passed, the parallel mechanism of DRTs should be effective to tackle the problem," the source said.

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