Parbati Hansda vs Union Of India & Ors
2021 Latest Caselaw 3917 Cal

23-07-2021
 ct no. 13
  Sl.106
    sp
                            WPA 11030 of 2021
                             Parbati Hansda
                               -Versus-
                        Union of India & Ors.
                       (Via Video Conference)

             Mr. Achyut Basu,
             Ms. Punam Basu,
             Ms. Sonam Basu,
             Mr. Srikanta Chakraborty
                                              ...for the petitioner

             Mr. Sankar Sarkar
                                         ...for the Union of India



                   Despite service of notice, the bank is not

             represented.

                   Affidavit of service filed by Mr. Achyut Basu,

             learned counsel for the petitioner, is taken on

             record.

                   The writ petitioner has applied for an

             educational loan to pursue the GNM Nursing

             Course    under   the   Vidya   Lakshmi   Common

             Education Loan Scheme, at the East West School

             of Nursing.

                   The bank has refused the application of the

             petitioner on the ground that the loan application

             was "out of the service area and low scoring for

             processing".

                   The Court has not been able to appreciate

             the exact reason for refusal except that the

             residence of the writ petitioner was outside the

             jurisdiction of the respondent no.8.

Mr. Achyut Basu, learned counsel

appearing for the petitioner places reliance on a

judgment of the Kerala High Court dated July 9,

2021 in WP (C) No. 6593 of 2021 (Devika Soniraj

vs. The Zonal Manager, Bank of India and Anr.).

In the said judgment, the Hon'ble Kerala

High Court has referred to the object and purpose

of the educational loan and that the applicants,

particularly, students, cannot be deprived of the

same except by due process of law. The

Cirular/Scheme of the IBA dtd. 27/09/2012.

In that view of the matter, this Court directs

the respondent-bank, to pass a reasoned order on

the loan application of the petitioner within a

period of one month from the date of

communication of a copy of this order, and to

communicate the same to the petitioner within

seven days thereof.

It is further directed that in the event, the

petitioner's application does not fall within the

jurisdiction of the respondent no.8, the said

application shall be forwarded to the concerned

Branch Manager of the bank having jurisdiction in

the matter.

It is needless to mention, the petitioner

shall comply with all requisitions of the bank. It is

expected that the respondent-bank shall bear in

mind the observations of the Kerala High Court in

the Devika Soniraj case (supra) on the circular of

the Indian Bank Associations dated September 27,

2012, i.e. Annexure-P/1 to the writ petition.

With the aforesaid observations, the writ

petition is disposed of.

There shall be no order as to costs.

All parties shall act on the server copy of

this order duly downloaded from the official

website of this Court.

(Rajasekhar Mantha, J.)