Point of Law: In view of a clear default on part of petitioner, he is not entitled for relief prayed for.

ORDER :

1. This civil writ petition has been preferred claiming the following reliefs:

“(i) That the auction notice dated 2.12.2022 (Annex.14) and auction proceeding 21.01.22 and possession notice dated 21.1.2023 is illegal and required strict action and liable to be quashed and set aside.

(ii) That the auction dated 21.12.2022 may kindly be cancelled for petitioner property and respondent may be directed not to proceed for sale finalization of the subject property and asset should be restored in favour of the petitioner and maintain status quo during the pendency of the matter till the final decision.

(iii) Possession notice dated 21.01.2023, may kindly be stayed and cancelled and during the pendency of the matter no coercive action should be taken against the property of the petitioner.

(iv) The Respondents may be directed to regularize the petitioner account and take out of NPA by accepting the overdue amount and continue the account or reschedule the loan account for entire appropriate unpaid amount and may proceed for final settlement of the petitioner loan account as Hon’ble Court deems just appropriate.

(v) That the Respondent may be directed to bear the legal expenses because of the unethical harassment of the petitioner.

(vi) Any other order or direction which this Hon’ble Court may kindly be passed.”

2. As the pleaded facts and the record would reveal, the petitioner No.1 (henceforth referred to as ‘the petitioner’), in connection with his business needs, availed loan facilities from the respondent-Bank; such loans, as per the petitioner, were duly repaid by him.

3. In the month of July 2009, the petitioner was sanctioned and advanced a term loan, to the tune of Rs.15,80,000/-, by the respondent-Bank, for the petitioner’s business requirements; the petitioner duly adhered to the terms and conditions, mentioned in the agreement pertaining to the said loan, and had made timely repayment of the loan installments. However, thereafter, due to certain adverse market conditions, the petitioner was not able to deposit some amount in the concerned bank account, whereupon the respondent-Bank informed the petitioner that his account is going to be classified as NPA; the petitioner immediately approached the Manager of the respondent-Bank, and deposited the amount of Rs.1,43,327/-and Rs.36,673/-on 17.07.2019; whereafter, the petitioner was informed by the respondent-Bank that since the overdue amount has been deposited, the account of the petitioner shall be regularized.

4. On 17.10.2019, when the petitioner visited the respondent-Bank to deposit an amount of Rs.70,000/-in the loan account, the then Bank Manager did not permit the petitioner to do so, while asking the petitioner to deposit the entire outstanding amount. Thereafter, in the month of January 2020, the petitioner arranged some more funds and visited the respondent-Bank with a request to permit him to deposit the overdue amount in the loan account, but the Bank Manager refused to permit the petitioner to do so and asked the petitioner to repay the entire outstanding amount of loan.

5. The petitioner further averred that thereafter, on account of onslaught of Covid-19 pandemic, complete lock down was declared by the government, and accordingly, all the business activities were closed down; owing to such onslaught, vide circulars dated 27.03.2020, 17.04.2020 and 22.05.2020 issued by the Reserve Bank of India, the asset classification norms were redefined and a direction was given to all the Banks for extending sympathetic treatment, like extension of moratorium facility etc., to the borrowers of the loan(s).

6. However, despite the above, the respondent-Bank issued a notice dated 08.11.2019 under Section 13(2) of the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002 (hereinafter referred to as ‘Act of 2002’) (as amended from time to time), purporting to compel the petitioner to deposit a sum of Rs.16,23,044.51, within a period of