Court No. - 33
Case :- WRIT - C No. - 6913 of 2018 Petitioner :- Premwati Respondent :- Punjab National Bank And 2 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- S.N. Pandey,Himanshu Pandey Counsel for Respondent :- Santosh Kumar Mishra,C.S.C.,Na,Sudha Pandey
Hon'ble Manoj Misra,J.
Heard learned counsel for the petitioner; the learned Standing Counsel for the respondents 2 and 3; and Ms. Sudha Pandey for the respondent no.1.
The case of the petitioner is that her husband had taken loan for purchase of tractor from the respondent no.1 (Punjab National Bank).
It is the case of the petitioner that the loan could not be paid back as per the time schedule provided for re-payment and, in the meantime, her husband went missing and has not been seen alive since 2014.
The grievance of the petitioner is that the bank has not brought the recovery proceeding initiated against the petitioner's husband to its logical conclusion and therefore the amount payable to the bank is still outstanding and the interest is mounting. The main grievance of the petitioner is that the bank is not negotiating with the petitioner to enter into a settlement in respect of the loan dues.
The learned counsel for the bank has submitted that since the petitioner is not privy to the loan agreement, settlement with the petitioner would not be legally permissible and therefore the bank cannot accept the offer from the petitioner to settle the loan account.
The learned counsel for the petitioner, in response, has submitted that the money payable by the borrower can always be paid by third party to close the account of the borrower and the petitioner undertakes that the petitioner would not make a claim against the bank to refund the money provided the amount is adjusted against outstanding loan dues. He has thus submitted that the bank should furnish a statement of account of the loan account to the petitioner so that the petitioner is in a position to settle the loan account and ensure that no further interest liability is added.
The aforesaid submission of the learned counsel for the petitioner appears to be reasonable and otherwise also consideration can be provided by a third party other than the beneficiary.
In view of the above, this Court considers it appropriate to dispose of this petition by giving liberty to the petitioner to apply for statement of account of the loan account belonging to her husband. If any such application is submitted by the petitioner along with certified copy of this order, within two weeks from today, the respondent-bank shall supply statement of the loan account concerned to the petitioner within a period of next two weeks with advise as to by which date she can and in what manner deposit the outstanding amount. Upon getting the statement of account and advise as above, it shall be open to the petitioner to deposit outstanding dues in the loan account with a prayer to close the loan account. If the petitioner makes such deposit, within the time schedule provided by the bank, then the bank shall close the loan account. It is, however, made clear that if the petitioner makes deposit as above she will not be entitled to raise a claim against the bank for return of money in any eventuality.
With the aforesaid liberty/direction/observation, the petition is disposed of.
Order Date :- 25.4.2018 Sunil Kr Tiwari