Both the Debt Recovery Act and Securitization Act of 2002 have a common object — expeditious disposal of cases so that banks' and financial institutions' money locked up in the hands of recalcitrant borrowers can be recovered expeditiously.
The debt recovery law mandates that cases shall be disposed of by the tribunals set up under it normally within 180 days, and verdict pronounced expeditiously within a reasonable time.
The Bombay High Court in International Asset Reconstruction Co Ltd v Registrar Debt Recovery Tribunal has pointed out vide its recent order that a fast track court like the DRT must deliver its verdicts fast and in the absence of elucidation of what constitutes a reasonable time in the Debt Recovery Act, it must heed what the Civil Procedure Code says — within 60 days.
The Court pointed out that DRTs are allowed to entertain oral submission made by the parties involved.
And this makes it all the more imperative why the verdicts must be pronounced immediately given the fact that human memory is short.
(The author is a New Delhi-based chartered accountant.)