IMPORTANT POINT
The court affirmed the necessity for banks to adhere to proper procedures in auctioning pledged assets and recognized the petitioner's right to seek redress for grievances regarding such actions.

JUDGMENT :

1. The petitioner pledged 3239 grams of gold ornaments in the 1^st respondent-Trichur Urban Co-operative Bank Limited No.87. Loans became overdue. Hence, the Bank scheduled auction of the said gold ornaments. In the auction conducted on 23. 06. 2015 a few of her gold ornaments were sold. The petitioner had sent a notice on 27.06.2015 objecting to the auction and her intention to participate in the auction. A false reply was sent and ignoring objections of the petitioner the 1^st respondent proceeded with the auction on 08.08.2015. The petitioner went to participate in the auction, but she was not permitted to participate in the whole of the process. The 2^nd respondent and its officials without conducting any auction made clandestine documents of an auction and gave the petitioner’s ornaments to the proxies of the officials for a very low price. Moreover, the 2^nd respondent made a false claim that an amount of Rs.20,33,127/- was still due from the petitioner.

2. Aggrieved by the said illegal acts and similar malpractices in the gold loans on the part of the officials of the Bank, the petitioner lodged various complaints. On the instructions of the 2^nd respondent, an enquiry was conducted by the 3^rd respondent. The report of that enquiry is Ext. P6. Although several malpractices were revealed in the enquiry, no action in that regard was taken yet. Owing to that inordinate delay, the petitioner has filed this writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India seeking the following reliefs:

“a) Issue a writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ, order or direction commanding the 2^nd respondent to conduct further enquiry into the allegations raised by the petitioner, in the light of Exhibit-P6 report submitted by the 3^rd Respondent.

b) Issue a writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ, order or direction commanding the 2^nd respondent to afford the petitioner an opportunity of hearing and a chance to adduce documents when the enquiry is conducted by the 2^nd respondent herein.”

3. The petitioner has filed I.A.No.1 of 2021 producing therewith Exts.P7 to P13.

4. The 2^nd respondent has submitted a statement dated 12.02.2025 explaining the steps taken by the Department following the complaint submitted by the petitioner. Paragraph Nos.5 to 7 in the said statement are extracted below:

“5. It is submitted that the complaint received by this respondent was forwarded to the third respondent in order to take further action. The third respondent after going through the records kept by the Bank had submitted primary report dated 08.03.2017 to this respondent. It is found that the petitioner was given enough time to settle her loan accounts and the auctions were postponed on four occasions upon her request. The third respondent had further reported that there were some procedural lapses in the process of conducting the auction. This respondent again directed the third respondent to have a detailed report on the complaint. The third respondent after giving an opportunity of hearing to the petitioner on 31.05.2017, submitted the report on 26.07.2017. It was found that the Bank had conducted the auctions without having proper minutes but has recorded the proceedings in papers and also the details of the persons participated in the auctions were not kept properly. Thereafter this respondent had sought clarification from the Bank with regard to the said defects and the Bank had replied that those are the procedures followed by them and to take necessary actions in future. No further action was taken upon the report as it was found that no injustice was caused to the petitioner and moreover the Bank has initiated rectification of the procedures.

6. Meanwhile an inquiry under Sec.65 of the Kerala Cooperative Societies Act was going on upon the request of the Bank when they found irregularities in maintaining gold stock and illegal transactions in internal checking vide letter dated 20.01.2016. This respondent after verifying the sam