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Over 42,000 cases are piled up before the 33 Debt Recovery Tribunals in the country locking up a whopping Rs 1.43-lakh crore. This is because the number of loan recovery cases filed by banks and financial institutions is rapidly outstripping those getting disposed of.
According to Finance Ministry data, from April 2012 to March 2013, banks and financial institutions filed 14,666 cases in DRTs to recover loans of Rs 48,037 crore. In the same period, the Tribunals resolved 9,816 cases (including those carried over from previous years) aggregating Rs 18,692 crore. Thus, as on March-end 2013, the number of cases pending before the DRTs was 42,819 involving Rs 1,43,873 crore.
Banks and financial institutions move the DRT for recovery of loans above Rs 10 lakh. The Tribunals also hear the pleas of borrowers against banks/financial institutions that have initiated legal proceedings to take possession of pledged assets under the Sarfaesi (Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest) Act for default in servicing loans of Rs 1 lakh and above.
According to M. R. Umarji, Chief Legal Adviser, Indian Banks’ Association, the Tribunals are getting bogged down dealing with cases filed by banks and financial institutions and hearing the plea of borrowers against recovery action.
According to him, recovery can be expedited by opening new Tribunals. Setting up a Tribunal to deal exclusively with the plea of borrowers against whom recovery action has been initiated could also help.
Bankers complain that though the DRTs are supposed to dispose of a case within six months from the date of receiving an application by a bank/financial institution, in reality even the first hearing happens after a year.
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