Press Information Bureau

Government of India

Ministry of Finance

23-August-2012 16:57 IST

A total of 67,524 cases were pending in 33 Debts Recovery Tribunals (DRTs) as on 31 March, 2012.

Some of the important reasons for delay in disposal of cases are increase in filing of new cases, adjournments sought by the debtors and enactment of Securitization and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002 under which appeal cases are filed before the DRTs.

The Government does not interfere in the judicial functioning of DRTs. However, keeping in view the pendency of cases in tribunals, several steps have been taken by the Government to remove the bottlenecks for speedy disposal of cases in DRTs. Some of these are as under:

i. Regular meetings are conducted with the Registrars of DRTs/DRATs to sort out administrative issues and with the Recovery Officers (ROs) for speedy disposal of recovery cases.

ii. Regular trainings of Registrars, Assistant Registrars and ROs.

iii. A conference of Chairpersons of DRATs and Presiding Officers of DRTs was conducted on 06.06.12 to review the legal, structural, administrative, monitoring and supervisory systems of DRTs to make these Tribunals more effective, efficient and vibrant judicial systems.

Sub-Section (24) of Section 19 of ‘The Recovery of Debts due to Banks and Financial Institutions Act, 1993’ stipulates that the application made to the Tribunals under sub-section (1) or sub-section (2) shall be dealt with by it as expeditiously as possible and endeavor shall be made by it to dispose of the application finally within one hundred eighty days from the date of receipt of the application.

This was stated by the Minister of State for Finance, Shri Namo Narain Meena in written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha today.

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DSM/RS/bs

Expeditious Disposal Requirement: DRT applications must be dealt with and disposed of within the prescribed statutory timeframe. Significant pendency in Debts Recovery Tribunals is ascribed to increased filings, debtor adjournments and appeals under the Securitization and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act; the Government has implemented administrative measures-meetings with Registrars and Recovery Officers, trainings, and a conference of tribunal leadership-to remove bottlenecks and reinforce the statutory expeditious disposal obligation for final disposal within one hundred eighty days.