Bank told to give car back to owner

A city court has come to the rescue of a man whose car was seized by a bank despite paying regular monthly installments.

A city court has come to the rescue of a man whose car was seized by a bank despite paying regular monthly installments. The court ordered ICICI Bank to release the car with immediate effect and summoned bank officials.

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“Considering the payment made by the defendant (Arun John), Vishu Kumar Sharma, the representative of the ICICI Bank who was appointed as receiver and who has repossessed the vehicle... is directed to release the Santro car to Arun John immediately...,” Senior Civil Judge Sandeep Yadav said.

The court also took note of alleged misrepresentation of facts by the bank and ordered that its representative Sharma, who took back the car, “will not be appointed as receiver in any case in future”.

“Let Prashant Saini, authorised representative of the plaintiff bank who sworn the affidavit on behalf of the ICICI Bank and verified the plaint, be summoned for explanation regarding the statement of accounts,” it said.

On February 17, the court had allowed the receiver of the bank to repossess the car from Arun John, a resident of Badarpur. The bank’s recovery petition claimed John did not pay installments since November 2008.

After his car was taken away, John approached the court and showed proof of his regular payments.

The court ordered that the car be returned immediately.

The bank had filed a recovery petition against John claiming that over Rs 2.32 lakh was outstanding against him and it be allowed to repossess the hypothecated car to realise the loan.