Krishna Annavarapu vs The Branch Manager And 9 Others
2022 Latest Caselaw 3569 Tel

           THE HON'BLE Dr. JUSTICE G. RADHA RANI

                  WRIT PETITION No.7717 OF 2021

ORDER:

This writ petition is filed by the petitioner to issue Writ of

Mandamus, declaring the action of the respondents in insisting upon to

clear off the outstanding loan amounts given by them without following

due process of law and trying to deprive the personal liberty of the

petitioners by engaging the services of recovery agents as being illegal,

arbitrary and is in violation of Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution of

India as well the law declared by the Hon'ble Apex Court as reported in

CDJ 2007 SC 227 and to direct the respondents not to insist for repayment

of the outstanding loan amounts through their recovery agents without

following the due process of law.

2. Heard the learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned

counsel for the respondents 5 and 6.

3. The learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that the

petitioner was a graduate and was working in Vishnu Automobiles and the

respondents had extended various credit facilities and had given credit

cards after following the in house procedure. The same were utilized by the

petitioner to meet out his family necessities and he was regularly paying Dr.GRR,J

the amounts. Due to Corona pandemic the petitioner was unable to pay the

amount to the respondents. He brought the same to their notice about the

financial crunch in which he was caught in and prayed to give some

breathing time. But, the respondents had pressed into service their

respective recovery agencies. The persons who were employed in the said

agencies were pressurizing the petitioner by visiting his work place and his

residence and were using abusive and filthy language and depriving him of

his personal liberty and were insisting upon to pay the entire outstanding

due amount. All the petitioner's entreats and representations to the alleged

recovery agents were paid a deaf ear. They were threatening to take

recourse of taking away the movables from the house. The respondents

could not insist upon repayment of the outstanding loan amount by

pressurizing its customers by taking the service of recovery agencies and

using their staff, who were known to be muscle men. It was nothing short

of deviating from the procedure known to law and relied upon the

judgment of the Hon'ble Apex Court in the case of Manager, ICICI Bank

Ltd. v. Prakash Kaur & others1, wherein the Hon'ble Court deprecated

the said action of engaging the recovery agents and insisting upon the

customer by using them observing as under:

CDJ 2007 SC 227 Dr.GRR,J

"... The practice of hiring recovery agents who are muscle men, is deprecated and needs to be discouraged. The Bank should resort to procedure recognized by law to take possession of vehicles in cases where the borrower may have committed default in payment of the installments instead of taking resort to strong arm tactics."

4. The learned counsel for the respondents 5 and 6 reported no

objection to dispose of the writ petition directing the respondents to follow

the procedure as per law for recovery of the amounts.

5. In view of the submissions of both the learned counsel, it is

considered fit to direct the respondents to follow the due process of law for

recovery of the outstanding loan amount due by the petitioner and not to

harass him by employing the recovery agents.

6. Accordingly, the writ petition is disposed of with the above

direction. No order as to costs.

Miscellaneous Petitions pending, if any, shall stand closed.

_____________________ Dr. G. RADHA RANI, J July 08, 2022 KTL