Despite getting justice, they still wait for it

NAGPUR, APRIL 2: For the Shah family of Dhantoli, the financial nightmare continues. About 19 years and several legal battles with a pres...

NAGPUR, APRIL 2: For the Shah family of Dhantoli, the financial nightmare continues. About 19 years and several legal battles with a prestigious nationalised bank later, it is left high and dry and threatened with a loan burden of more than Rs 20 lakh, when, legally, the bank owes about the same amount to them.

Haritkumar Shah and Narendra Kumar Shah are locked in a continuous battle with the Central Bank of India, the Dhantoli branch of which is housed in the property owned by the Shahs, over the matter of adjustment of rent against the loan taken from the bank.

Although the latest High Court ruling is in favour of the Shah brothers and the bank has been directed to pay the due rent at the rate of Rs 25,550 per month to them, the bank authorities have allegedly come out with a lot of accounting jargon to prove that the Shah brothers still owe about Rs 20 lakh to the bank.

The financial mess started in 1980, when the Bhagyodaya Mangal Karyalaya owned by the Shahs was gutted in a fire. It was during the reconstruction of this property, that the Central Bank authorities are said to have contacted the Shahs with the offer of a loan of Rs 5.48 lakh.

An agreement was later entered into, according to which the bank took the ground floor of the newly-constructed building on rent for their Dhantoli branch. The agreed rent of Rs 8,360 per month was to be adjusted against the interest on the loan amount.

Later, the bank authorities took possession of the adjoining property in March 1983, promising the Shahs to pay Rs 15,000 as monthly rent. However, the bank authorities kept on adjusting the rent against interest at the rate of Rs 8,360 and the Shahs never received any amount in cash as rent.

The matter was taken to court in 1990, when the Shahs demanded that the rent on the property be increased. The High Court came out with an interim order in February 1997, directing the bank to pay rent at the rate of Rs 6 per square feet to the Shahs. This amount came to around Rs 21,900 per month.

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Although the bank started paying this amount as per the direction of the court, it again appealed in the High Court. The writ petition by the bank was, however, dismissed by the High Court on February 1, 1999, during which the court ruled that the bank pay rent at the rate of Rs 25,550 to the Shahs with effect from March 1990.

While the Shahs say that according to this ruling the bank owes them Rs 40,67,291 Rs 27,59,400 as rent plus interest, the bank recently sent an account to the Shahs which shows that instead the Shahs owe Rs 20,34,725 to the bank.

The bank has calculated this amount as the balance loan amount of Rs 5,88,826 and Rs 16,27,120 as the interest thereon. The balance loan amount has been calculated as the amount remaining after adjusting the rent between November 1984 to February 1990 against the interest on the loan during this period.

The family is at a loss, literally and figuratively too, as despite getting justice from the court, they have been forced to wait for it, endlessly.