JUDGMENT

The original petition is filed challenging Ext.P10 common order passed by the Debt Recovery Tribunal-II, Ernakulam (in short, ‘Tribunal’) in I.A. No.1678/2023 in S.A. No.254/2023.

2. The relevant factual matrix for the determination of the original petition, is that: -

(i) The first petitioner is a proprietorship concern owned by the second petitioner. The first petitioner had availed financial assistance from the respondent-Bank – for capital cash credit and other facilities, with an aggregate limit of Rs.1,79,00,000/-, by offering 40.20 Ares of agricultural land as collateral security. The petitioners 3 and 4 are guarantors of the loan. The first petitioner is a MSME Unit. Due to unprecedented floods that lashed the State in the year 2018, and the repercussions due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the first petitioner was under severe financial stress. Hence, it was unable to pay the instalments on time. Immediately, the respondent classified the loan account as a ‘NPA’ and initiated recovery proceedings under the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002 (in short ‘SARFAESI Act’), that too without complying with the statu