DRT RECOVERIES UP BY 51% COMPARED
TO PREVIOUS YEAR
MoS
REVIEWS PERFORMANCE OF DRTs
The Minister of State
for Finance (Banking & Insurance), Shri Anandrao V. Adsul
has advised the Banks and Financial Institutions not to seek adjournments
unless there are compelling circumstances to do so. The Minister
was holding a meeting with the Chairpersons of Debt Recovery Appellate
Tribunals (DRATs) and presiding officers of Debt Recovery Tribunals
(DRTs) to discuss and review the progress of disposal of cases
filed with Tribunals under the DRT Act.
Recoveries made
through DRTs during the year 2002-03 was Rs. 3252 crore as against
Rs.2153 crore during the previous year. For the first time the
number of cases disposed off has exceeded the number of fresh
cases registered. The Tribunals are making steady progress in
disposal of cases and the performance of DRTs during the year
2002-03 both in terms of disposal of cases and recovery has been
encouraging.
The Minister
suggested that more attention should be paid to long pending and
high value cases to achieve the objectives of special Tribunals.
Suggestions from various quarters to further streamline and strengthen
the functioning of the DRTs were also considered in the meeting.
The Minster has urged the Banking Division to examine the suggestions
having implications on the DRT Act as well as the DRT Procedure
Rules in consultation with other concerned agencies. It has been
suggested in the meeting that Assistant Registrar should also
be notified to exercise the powers of recovery officers in order
to speed up disposal of decreed cases and that the high value
cases in metropolitan cities should be assigned to specific DRTs.
Shri Adsul has
suggested that the Chairpersons of DRATs should hold review meetings
with the presiding officers of DRTs at regular intervals to streamline
the procedures as well as to reduce the pendency.
