• Harassed and abused by loan recovery agents

dear sir,

I have taken a personal loan 4 years back.some how i am not able to pay it but from last 14 months i am paying 500 monthly instead of the regular emi rs.7416 due to financial crisis.On 25 th of February 2015 four robust people came to my house, without prior information,when i was not at home.One of them was saying that he is from COURT[new delhi].All of them abused my wife and my mom in front of the neighbours.They shouted loudly in front of the house in my street.When i came home they did they same to me also.They were threatening us that they had a court's order to collect my all valuable assets to pay my dues to the bank or i should pay some good amount at the same time. They called 2 more robust people to threaten me so that they can forcefully collect my assets.Meanwhile i called the police but they said that it is a matter me and the bank so we should tackle it mutually and they walked away.Finally they got 15000 from me forcefully and 2 post dated cheques of 1amount 1,17000 and 1,18000.Is there any provision to settle the bank's amount by selling one's assets or collecting assets forcefully from the party.Please suggest what should i do in this case.Should i file a defamation case.
Asked 9 years ago in Civil Law

First answer received in 30 minutes.

Lawyers are available now to answer your questions.

8 Answers

1. Recovery agents have no authority of law to recover an unpaid loan. They have been frowned upon by the Supreme Court on more than one occasion wherein the court made it clear that recovery agents and the bank officials who rope in these agents must be prosecuted. Since then officials of many banks have been successfully prosecuted for taking recourse to such an extra-judicial measure.

2. A court official who comes to serve the court notice does not abuse the inhabitants of the house. If the person to whom the summons is issued refuses to accept it, he records a finding to this effect and goes away. So rest assured that this guy was a recovery agent employed by the bank, not a court official.

3. You should lodge a complaint for intimidation to the nearest police station against the bank and recovery agents who are harassing you.

4. If you have not repaid the loan the bank can take out recovery proceedings in a court of law against you, but it cannot take recourse to such extra-judicial measures.

5. Since the police has also washed off its hands you should engage a lawyer and file a case for criminal intimidation in the court.

6. The bank cannot recover its money now as it ought to have recovered it within 3 years.

7. No case for defamation is made out though.

Ashish Davessar
Advocate, Jaipur
30763 Answers
972 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

1) file complaint before magistrate court under section 156( 3) of Cr Pc to direct cops to investigate offence of criminal intimidation and submit its report .

2) if your wife and mother have been abused they can also file complaint .

3) it appears they are recovery agents and dont have any orders from court .

4) if they had court orders they would not have abused your family members . you should have asked them to produce copy of court orders

5) next time they call you and threaten you record their threats . if you can afford it install CCTV cameras around your house so that their faces can be captured on video footage

6) claim of bank is not barred by limitation as you have been paying Rs 500 per month instead of EMI due . since part payments have been made claim is within time

Ajay Sethi
Advocate, Mumbai
94817 Answers
7557 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

1) if any case has been filed against you then you will be served with summons to appear in court .

2) you can engage local lawyer to file appearance on your behalf and also to file your reply

3)if inspite of service of summons you did not file any appearance court may proceed exparte against you .

4) in execution proceedings taken out by bank court can pass order for attachment of your assets .

5) if you dont pay assets can be sold in execution of decree .

6) you can enter into one time settlement with bank . request bank to reschedule your loan

Ajay Sethi
Advocate, Mumbai
94817 Answers
7557 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

1. If a case has been filed against you then engage a lawyer for your defence and contest the case.

2. The court has unquestionable authority to enforce a debt against the debtor.

3. Your property can be attached and sold away at a throwaway price if you do not honour the court order to repay the amount.

4. At this stage you should engage a lawyer to contest the case so that an adverse order is not passed against you.

Ashish Davessar
Advocate, Jaipur
30763 Answers
972 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

contact a lawyer personally and the lawyer may inspect the judicial file and got all the information regarding the file and status of your case.

immediately file FIR against that people who harassed you and your family and forcefully taken cheques from you.

apart from this you may file a criminal/civil defamation case against those person with the bank's officials and claim compensation.

you can contact me personally after getting my detail from admin or call me

Nadeem Qureshi
Advocate, New Delhi
6307 Answers
302 Consultations

4.9 on 5.0

1. Bank has acted illegally by sending agents to force you to repay the loan,

2. There has been Supreme court order restraining lending Banks to take such illegal loan recovery process,

3. Send a complaint before the police under copy to the S.P. and file an application u/s156(3) praying for an order upon the police to investigate and act based on your said complaint,

4. The Bank certainly has the right to recover its outstanding amount but it has to be done with due process of law,

5. The Bank can file a Recovery Suit and get an attachment order in connection with your house andf finally get an order from the Court for selling it to recover its outstanding,

6. It is a mistake to issue the cheques afresh,

7. If those cheques are bounced, cases u/s138 of N.I. Act can be initiated by the Bank,

8. Issue stop payment order to your Bank for those two cheques and make mention of the incidence of forcing you to sign those two cheques in your complaint to the police.

Krishna Kishore Ganguly
Advocate, Kolkata
27220 Answers
726 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

1. If a case has been filed against by the Bank, a Summons to this effect should be sent to you,

2. In some cases, Summons are managed to be shown as rceived by the addressee with the help of unscupulous court/postal officials,

3. So, engage a local lawyer and get copy of the case filed against you,

4. Contest the case filed against you fittingly.

Krishna Kishore Ganguly
Advocate, Kolkata
27220 Answers
726 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

Hi, what was the stage in the court you must ascertain from the local advocate only and thereafter you must contest the case on merits.

2. For taking cheques forcibly at your home you should lodge a police complaint against them as they have no authority to enter your home and if they want to recover the amount they must be do accordance with procedure established under law and not according to their wills and fancy.

Pradeep Bharathipura
Advocate, Bangalore
5604 Answers
336 Consultations

4.5 on 5.0

Ask a Lawyer

Get legal answers from lawyers in 1 hour. It's quick, easy, and anonymous!
  Ask a lawyer