Staff shortage: DRT turns rusty

“It’s a serious matter. The government should appoint more officers to speed up recovery,” said state lawyers.

A major chunk of bad loans is generated from Mumbai. Three DRT tribunals — I, II and III with offices in Scindia House, Ballard Estate — cover Mumbai and certain regions of Maharashtra where the claim is Rs 10 lakh and above.

Each tribunal has two seats of recovery officers. While DRT-II — where 2,000 cases are pending closure — has been functioning without recovery officers for over six months, DRT-I and DRT-II have just one officer each.

The finance ministry selects and appoints these officers.

DRT-I alone has 1,259 decrees pending — 30 per cent of which has unsecured loans attached to it — again due to staff shortage. Still, both the government and banks are claiming to have taken steps to cut NPAs from Rs 1,10,000 crore.

In DRT-II, 4,876 cases involving Rs 14,469 crore have been registered so far. It has disposed 3,512 cases involving Rs 7,092 crore as on March 31, 2005. But the number of pending cases work out to 1,364 involving Rs 7,377 crore.

“I’m running from pillar to post to settle my case. It makes no sense if there’s no recovery officer to execute the order passed by the tribunal,” said a borrower whose company is involved in a litigation.

DRTs are special tribunals which came into existence after The Recovery of Debts Due to Banks and Financial Institutions Act, 1993 was enacted for ensuring expeditious adjudication and recovery of their claims. All claims above Rs 10 lakh automatically get transferred to these tribunals from high courts.

‘‘The vacant posts have only prolonged matters involving NPA recovery, defeating the very purpose of DRT,’’ said sources at the tribunal.

Each tribunal comprises only 30 employees including section officers and a presiding officer. This is measly considering over 60 claims get filed a month. Of these, around 40-50 cases come up for hearing daily. There are many officers who have not taken up jobs fearing the work load, sources said.