Introduction:

1. It is a tussle between a bank and a borrower, as usual. The bank auctions the secured asset, certifies the sale, and wants it to be registered in the purchaser’s name. The borrower balks. She wants the property ‘redeemed’—at any length of time—even years later. For she asserts that her right to redeem the property at a tardy pace should triumph over the bank’s right to recover the loan with dispatch.

2. How should a mortgagor’s right to redeem the property under S.60 of the Transfer of Property Act fare vis-a-vis a banker’s right to sell the secured asset and the SARFAESI Act?

Case History:

3. There are two Writ Petitions: W.P.(C) No.12045 of 2018 and W.P.(C) No.38194 of 2018. The former is by the bank and the latter by the borrower-couple. The bank wants the sale to be registered, so it can convey the property to the auction purchaser. The borrowers, however, want their property back—redeemed.

4. I will take up the bank’s Writ Petition, the earlier of the two, to set out the facts. So should the parties be described as arrayed in that Writ Petition.

Facts:

W.P.(C) No.12045 of 2018:

5. Mariyumma and Hameed, wife and husband, took a housing loan, besides securing