Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Madras HC directs DRT to consider afresh hotel's plea


PTI | 11:06 PM,Jun 19,2012
Chennai, Jun 19 (PTI): Coming to the aid of a city hotel, the Madras High Court has reverted a petition by the hotel, challenging the auctioning of its immovable property, back to a Debts Recovery Tribunal (DRT) for fresh consideration. 
Giving the direction on a petition filed by M Rajasekar, a Director of 'Hotel Breeze', a Division Bench comprising Justices D Murugesan and K K Sasidharan said it was for the DRT to consider the matter afresh on merits and dispose of it preferably within six weeks.
 Submitting that the hotel was in existence for about two decades, Rajasekar contended that the title deeds of its immoveable assets were mortagaged for a loan of Rs 12.75 crore from a branch of INDUSIND BANK, here, by Exim Rajathi India Private Limited, involved in export and import of agricultural products. 
However, the borrower could not repay the loan amount due to unforseen circumstances and the bank had initiated recovery proceedings.
 The borrower had also approached the bank for a one-time settlement and ngotiations were still on the petitioner said. 
Meanwhile, Mumbai based Pegasus Assets Reconstruction Private Limited, an assignee of the IndusInd Bank, initiated proceedings to auction the property of the petitioner. 
Contending that the company was not entitled to initiate the 'drastic' auctioning process, that too when the one time settlement process was pending before the bank, the petitioner moved the High Court challenging the move to auction the property.