The Gujarat High Court Wednesday pulled up State Bank of India (SBI) for not issuing a no-dues certificate to a borrower for pending dues worth 31 paise. The petitioners in the case - Rakesh and Manoj Verma - moved the high court after buying a plot of agricultural land at Sanand from the borrower. Owing to outstanding dues by the previous owner, who had taken cash crop loans worth Rs 4.55 lakh from the SBI, the application by Rakesh and Manoj before the revenue department to mutate the land to their names, was rejected. According to advocate Jinesh Kapadia, representing the petitioners, the previous owner of the land had subsequently paid off the outstanding dues, leaving no hurdle for mutation of records in favour of the petitioners. But non-issuance of no-dues certificate owing to the pending 31 paise by the SBI kept the mutation in favour of the petitioners pending. The SBI on Wednesday submitted that the borrower had paid the outstanding dues in the account of the crop loan. Following this, the court directed the SBI to place on record a statement of account of the account in question and kept the matter for further hearing on May 2. The SBI drew Justice Bhargav Karia’s ire as he remarked during the open court proceedings that “there is a banking regulation act that provides that anything less than 50 paise is not to be counted (as outstanding dues).” Justice Karia further remarked that why the SBI “is harassing people? "It is nothing but harassment by the bank manager. It is too much. Nationalised banks, for 31 paise (outstanding dues), say no-dues certificate will not be issued?” he said.
