W-91 GK-II

RATIONAL EXPECTATIONS

As a journalist interested in India's curious property laws, I've heard pretty bizarre stories. Like, for instance, you can actually go and register the Taj Mahal in your name, and even pay property taxes on it for decades, but this doesn't necessarily mean you own the property "" indeed, the statutes in several states like Maharashtra make it very clear they have no liability as far as property records are concerned.

So, as a bank manager, you can make a loan to me because the sub-registrar's records show I own a certain property. But if someone comes and shows the records are incorrect, the bank can't sue the government for the fact that it took a business decision on the basis of incorrect official records.

But the story I'm about to narrate is even more bizarre, one in which the bank, indeed two banks, didn't even bother to inspect the land records while giving loans.

A couple of weeks ago, my cousin Ashok and his daughter dropped by to tell me about a problem they were facing with a plot of land my cousin owned, W-91 Greater Kailash-II. Unlike so many properties that are sold on a power-of-attorney basis, this plot's history is quite uncomplicated. It was bought in the early '70s from the DLF, the developers of Greater Kailash-II, and registered in my cousin's name.

And since my cousin has never shifted his house, for the last 30-plus years, the registrar's office shows W-91 as owned by Ashok Jain, s/o Lala Shripal Jain, r/o 6 Rohtak Road, New Delhi.

In August 2002, the Mall Road branch of the Syndicate Bank sent my cousin a notice saying his property was being attached as it was offered as guarantee by him against a loan taken by someone called Ajay Kumar Mehndiratta and Niru Pulsaria. My cousin then went to the Syndicate Bank branch and said the property had never been offered as a guarantee and that he didn't know who Mehndiratta or Pulsaria were.

While bank officials showed him papers of an Ashok Jain who lived in Kalkaji and said he owned the plot of land, my cousin showed them his identity papers, the land deeds he had, and so on. According to my cousin, the bank officials looked like they'd been duped, but we have no independent corroboration since bank officials have refused to comment on the matter.

I tried speaking to the regional office, but the concerned official refused to come on the phone, and his secretary even gave me an incorrect number for the bank's chairman in Manipal in Karnataka "" when I called to protest, he said he had nothing further to say. Anyway, I got the chairman's numbers, but a fax to him has remained unanswered for several days.

In October, the same story got repeated again, this time with the Punjab & Sind Bank telling my cousin that a company called BISCO had taken a Rs 9 crore loan from them, offered two properties as collateral (one of which was W-91), and since the loan hadn't been repaid, the properties were being confiscated. The other property being confiscated, in East of Kailash, belongs to someone called Manocha.

Anyway, somehow or the other, the CBI began investigating the case, and in May last year, it registered a case of fraud (Case #5 in the Economic Offences Wing-1 at Loknayak Bhawan), and apart from the two people who'd taken the loan from Syndicate Bank, some bank officers were also arrested. During their investigations, the CBI was given the name of the person who'd impersonated my cousin, and after his photograph was flashed on national TV last month, he was arrested.

During interrogation, he confessed to having impersonated not just my cousin in the Syndicate Bank case, but he pretended to be Manocha in the Punjab & Sind Bank case! During the investigations, my cousin was called to the CBI office, and the Punjab & Sind Bank official who'd cleared the loan after supposedly getting the collateral papers signed by my cousin, was asked if he'd seen him before "" naturally, the official said he hadn't.

The problem, now, is that Syndicate Bank has petitioned the Debt Recovery Tribunal, asking that my cousin's property be attached till such time that the CBI case be settled. Now since the CBI case could take years, dragged on from one court to the other, what it really means is that my cousin's property could be sealed for years on end for no fault of his.

That's why, in fact, my cousin came to see me, and I went to see a friend in the CBI. Well, I was told, the CBI's investigation in the Syndicate Bank is complete (the other one is also nearing completion), that a chargesheet is being filed, and that my cousin is clearly the victim of a crime. So, there's no problem, I asked the CBI official, my cousin can relax?

No he can't, was the reply. The CBI has no locus standi in the DRT matter. So, let your cousin hire a good lawyer, and implead the CBI in the case "" if the court is satisfied by the CBI official's testimony, then your cousin is safe. If not, then he'll have to go to a higher court, and a higher one.

Imagine the situation. Apart from the severe anxiety, you have to spend lakhs to protect your own rights, since no one can really assure you your rights.

Postscript: Ten minutes after my cousin left the office, he was back "" it seems his wife called to say officials from the Indian Overseas Bank had come home to verify if they owned W-91 GK-II because someone had come to them to ask for a loan against this property...

suniljain@business-standard.com