The Delhi High Court has issued notice to Standard Chartered Bank on a petition, which alleged non-payment Rs 1.5 lakh by the foreign bank as directed by the DRT and sought winding up of the lender's India operations.
A single member bench of Justice S K Mishra has directed the foreign bank to file its reply within four weeks on a petition filed by three persons in a property case.
The petition followed StanChart's alleged failure to pay a cost of Rs 1.5 lakh to the persons as per the judgement of the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) in New Delhi.
The DRT in its ruling on May 15 quashed two notices of the Bank on taking possession of the two properties located in Nizamuddin West in New Delhi under the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act. The DRT also asked the bank to pay Rs 1.5 lakh along with 18 per cent interest to the persons.
However, according to the petition filed by advocate Gajendra Giri, the bank neither paid the amount nor returned the property papers of his client D S Sawhney's home.
"Standard Chartered Bank has illegally withheld property documents despite the fact that nothing is due against the said property and thus bank has cheated them and is illegally withholding the documents nor it paid the cost amount as directed by the DRT," contended the petitioner.
Giri contended that as per sections 45 A, 45 B of the Banking Regulation Act and the Companies Act, if a banking company fails to pay debt or refuses to pay any lawful demand "within two working days" then the High Court has the power to order winding up of the bank.