BANK NEWS

SBI denies farmer no-dues cert over 31 paise; HC livid

Ahmedabad : The Gujarat high court rapped State Bank of India (SBI) on Wednesday for withholding a farmer’s no-dues certificate over an outstanding amount of 31 paise. The farmer needed the certificate to complete a land deal after repaying a loan. The bank told the court that the bank’s charge from the land parcel has not been removed because the farmer still owed 31 paise after repayment of the loan. Justice Bhargav Karia said: “This is too much,” adding that not issuing a no-dues certificate for such a meagre amount is “nothing but harassment”.

“Outstanding of 31 paise? Do you know anything less than 50 paise is to be ignored,” the judge said. A furious Justice Karia told the bank to file an affidavit on the issue and posted the hearing to May 2. In this case, Rakesh Verma and Manoj Verma had purchased a parcel of land in Khoraj village, on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, from Shamjibhai Pashabhai and his family.

Earlier, Pashabhai’s family had obtained a crop loan from SBI. Before the loan was repaid, Pashabhai’s family sold the land.

The outstanding amount made the bank place a charge on the land and the new owners’ names could not be entered into the revenue records. The purchasers offered to pay the amount to get the certificate.

As the matter did not progress, the purchasers approached the HC in 2020. During the pendency of the petition, the loan was repaid completely. But the bank still did not issue a no-dues certificate and the land could not be transferred. On Wednesday, the court said that once the loan has been paid, it will direct the bank to issue the certificate.