MINISTER OF FINANCE ( SHRI P. CHIDAMBARAM )
(a) to (e): A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.
STATEMENT AS REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARAS (a) TO (e) OF LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 441 FOR
26th APRIL 2013/6 VAISAKHA, 1935 (SAKA) REGARDING DEBT RECOVERY TRIBUNALS.
(a) to (c) In pursuance of provisions of the Recovery of Debts due to Banks and Financial
Institutions Act, 1993 (RDDBFI Act), 33 Debts Recovery Tribunals (DRTs) and 5 Debts Recovery
Appellate Tribunals (DRATs) have been established in various parts of the country for expeditious
adjudication and recovery of debts due to Banks and Financial Institutions. The details of DRTs/
DRATs are at Annexure I. The disposal of cases by the DRTs, the amount involved in these cases
and the amount outstanding during the last 3 years and current year is as under:
Period Cases Amount No. of cases Amount of disposed involved in Pending Outstanding Debt off disposed involved cases (in crore) (in crore)
2010 11801 21079 37616 113081
2011 12122 21155 54061 146180
2012 9125 16078 41205 130815
2013 (till 2642 4439 40866 141386
March)
As per information available, the DRT wise disposal of cases and amount involved for the years
2006-07 onwards and pendency as on date is given in Annexure II.
Bank wise categorisation of cases is not maintained by the DRTs.
(d) & (e) Yes Sir. As per the information provided by RBI, the cumulative amount so far recovered
by the Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) through DRTs as on 31.3.2012 is Rs.33104.76 crore.
To improve functioning of the DRTs, the Enforcement of Security Interest and Recovery of Debts
Laws (Amendment) Act, 2012 has been enacted, inter-alia, amending the RDDBFI Act. Salient
features of these amendments are as under:
(a) Multi-State co-operative banks have been included in the definition of `bank`
(b) The Debts Recovery Tribunals have been empowered to pass an order
acknowledging settlement or compromise between the banks/financial
institutions and the borrower;
(c) If any application filed before the Tribunal for recovery of any debts is settled
prior to commencement of hearing or at any stage of proceedings before the
final order is passed, the applicant may be granted refund of fee paid by him at
such rates as may be prescribed.
(d) A time limit of 30 days has been fixed for filing the written statement by the
defendants provided that one or two further extension may be allowed, in
exceptional cases and in special circumstances, to be recorded in writing by the
Presiding Officer.
(e) The number of adjournments allowed in a case have been restricted to three to
a party and if there are three or more parties, the total number of such
adjournment should not exceed six.
Besides the above, various administrative steps have been taken to remove the bottlenecks
in speedy disposal of cases in DRTs, which are as under:
(i) The concept of an Annual Conference of the Chairpersons and the Presiding
Officers of DRATs/DRTs has been introduced wherein all issues/problems
before the DRTs are discussed and remedial measures suggested,
(ii) Regular Meetings with Registrars of DRTs/DRATs are held to address the
administrative & logistics issues.
(iii) Meeting with Recovery Officers are held on regular basis for speedy disposal of
recovery cases.
(iv) DRTs are holding Lok Adalats on regular basis to expedite the disposal of cases.
(v) Regular Training of Registrars and Recovery Officers is conducted.
