Statutory authority limits recovery steps: borrower photographs cannot be published as a debt recovery measure.

A secured creditor under the SARFAESI framework may use only those recovery measures expressly authorised by the statute and the Security Interest (Enforcement) Rules, 2002. The provisions permit notice to the borrower and, where applicable, notice about the secured asset, but they do not authorise publication of a defaulting borrower's or guarantor's photograph in newspapers or magazines. In the absence of legislative sanction, such publication is treated as an unauthorised and extra-legal recovery method, and the threat to publish photographs is liable to be restrained. The privacy issue was not decided because the lack of statutory authority was sufficient.

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Issues: Whether a secured creditor under the SARFAESI Act is entitled to publish the photographs of defaulting borrowers or guarantors in newspapers or magazines as a measure for recovery of secured debt.

Analysis: The SARFAESI Act and the Security Interest (Enforcement) Rules, 2002 empower a secured creditor to take the measures specifically authorized by statute, including action under Section 13(4) and the prescribed possession and sale procedures. Those provisions permit notice to the borrower and, in appropriate cases, notice to the public regarding the secured asset, but they do not expressly or by necessary implication authorize publication of the borrower's or guarantor's photograph. For a public authority, the test is not whether an act is merely unprohibited, but whether it is affirmatively permitted by law. In the absence of legislative sanction, publication of photographs becomes an unauthorized and extra-legal recovery method. The existence of a possible privacy issue was not decided, because the absence of statutory authority itself was sufficient to dispose of the challenge.

Conclusion: The threat to publish photographs of defaulting borrowers or guarantors is impermissible and is liable to be restrained.

Final Conclusion: The writ petitions succeeded to the limited extent of prohibiting publication of photographs, while leaving the secured creditors free to proceed in accordance with law by other permissible measures.

Ratio Decidendi: A public authority can enforce security interests only by measures expressly authorized by the governing statute and rules, and in the absence of such authorization it cannot resort to publication of a borrower's or guarantor's photograph.

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