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THE DEBT RECOVERY
APPELLATE TRIBUNAL
(PROCEDURE) RULES, 1994
(Vide G.S.R. 815(E), dated 16th
November, 1994 published in gazette of India, Extra, Pt.II,Sec.3(i),
Dt.16th November,1994)
In exercise of
the powers conferred by sub-section (1) and (2) of section 36 of the
Recovery of Debts Due to Banks and Financial Institutions Act, 1993
(51 of 1993), the Central Government hereby makes the following rules,
namely:-
Short title and commencement
(1) These rules
may be called THE DEBTS RECOVERY APPELLATE TRIBUNAL (PROCEDURE)
RULES,1994.
(2) They shall
come into force on the date of their publication in the Official
Gazette.
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Definitions
In these rules,
unless the context otherwise requires, -
(a)
Act means the Recovery of Debts Due to Banks and Financial
Institutions Act, 1993 (51 of 1993);
(b)
agent means a person duly authorised by a party to present
appeal or to give reply on its behalf before the Appellate Tribunal;
(c)
appeal means an appeal made to the Appellate Tribunal under
section 20 or section 30 of the Act;
(d)
appellant means a person or a bank or a financial institution
making an appeal to the Appellate Tribunal under section 20 or section
30 of the Act;
(e)
Appellate Tribunal means an Appellate Tribunal established by
Central Government under section 8 of the Act;
(f)
legal practitioner shall have the same meaning as assigned to
it in the Advocates Act, 1961(25 of 1961)
(g)
Presiding Officer means the Presiding Officer of an Appellate
Tribunal;
(h)
Registrar means the Registrar of an Appellate Tribunal and
includes an officer of such Appellate Tribunal who is authorised by
the Presiding Officer to function as Registrar;
(i)
Registry means the Registry of the Appellate Tribunal.
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Sittings of Appellate Tribunal.
An Appellate
Tribunal shall hold its sittings either at Headquarters or at such
other place falling within its jurisdiction as it may consider
convenient.
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Language of Appellate Tribunal
(1)The proceedings
of the Appellate Tribunal shall be conducted in English or Hindi.
(2) No appeal,
reference, application, representation, document or other matters
continued in any language other than English or Hindi, shall be
accepted by the Appellate Tribunal, unless the same is accompanied by
a true copy of translation thereof in English or Hindi.
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Procedure for filing appeals
(1) A memorandum
of appeal shall be presented in the Form annexed to these rules by the
Appellant either in person to the Registrar of the Appellate Tribunal
within whose jurisdiction his case falls or shall be sent by
registered post addressed to such Registrar.
(2) Where the
appellant is a bank or a financial institution, a memorandum of appeal
may be preferred, -
(a)
by one or more legal practitioners authorised by such bank or
financial institution or,
(b)
by any of the officers of such bank or financial institution
to act as Presenting Officers;
and every person
so authorised may present the appeal before the Appellate Tribunal.
(3) Where the
appellant is other than a bank or a financial institution, he may
prefer an appeal in person or by his agent or by a duly authorised
legal practitioner.
(4) An appeal sent
by post under sub-rule (1) shall be deemed to have been presented to
the Registrar on the day on which it is received in the office of the
Registrar.
(5) The appeal
under sub-rule (1) shall be presented in four sets in a paper book
along with an empty file size envelope bearing full address of the
respondent and where the number of respondents are more than one, then
sufficient number of extra paper books together with empty file size
envelopes bearing full addresses of each respondent shall be furnished
by the appellant.
Application Format
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Presentation and scrutiny of memorandum of
appeal
(1) The Registrar
shall endorse on every appeal the date on which it is presented under
rule 5 or deemed to have been presented under that rule and shall sign
endorsement.
(2) If, on
scrutiny, the appeal is found to be in order, it shall be duly
registered and given a serial number.
(3) If an appeal
on scrutiny is found to be defective and the defect noticed is formal
in nature, the Registrar may allow the appellant to rectify the same
in his presence and if the said defect is not formal in nature, the
Registrar, may allow the appellant such time to rectify the defect as
he may deem fit.
(4) If the
concerned appellant fails to rectify the defect within the time
allowed in sub-rule (3), the Registrar may by order and for reasons to
be recorded in writing, decline to register such memorandum of
appeal.
(5) An appeal
against the order of the Registrar under sub-rule (4) shall be made
within fifteen days of making of such order to the Presiding Officer
concerned in his chamber, whose decision thereon shall be final.
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Place of filing memorandum of appeal.
The
memorandum of appeal shall be filed by the appellant with the
Registrar of the Appellate Tribunal having jurisdiction in the matter.
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Fee
(1) Every
memorandum of appeal under section 20 of the Act shall be accompanied
with a fee provided in sub-rule (2) and such fee may be remitted
either in the form of crossed demand draft drawn on a nationalised
bank in favour of the Registrar and payable at the station where the
Registrars office is situated or remitted through a crossed Indian
Postal Order drawn in favour of the Registrar and payable in Central
Post Office of the station where the Appellate Tribunal is located.
(2) The amount of
fee payable in respect of appeal under section 20 shall be as
follows:-
|
Amount of debt due |
Amount of fees payable |
|
Less than rupees 10
lakhs |
Rupees 12,000 |
|
Rupees 10 lakhs or more but Less
than rupees 30 lakhs |
Rupees 20,000 |
|
Rupees 30 lakhs or more |
Rupees 30,000 |
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Deposit of amount of debt due.
Where an
appeal is preferred by a person referred to in section 21 of the Act,
such appeal shall not be entertained by the Appellate Tribunal unless
such person has deposited with the Appellate Tribunal seventy-five per
cent of the amount of debt so due from him as determined by the
Tribunal under section 19 of the Act, provided that the Appellate
Tribunal may, for reasons to be recorded in writing, waive or reduce
the amount to be deposited under section 21 of the Act.
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Contents of memorandum of appeal
(1)Every
memorandum of appeal filed under Rule 5 shall set forth concisely
under distinct heads, the grounds of such appeal without any argument
or narrative, and such grounds shall be numbered consecutively and
shall be typed in double line space on one side of the paper.
(2) It shall not
be necessary to present separate memorandum of appeal to seek interim
order or direction if in the memorandum of appeal, the same is prayed
for.
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Documents to accompany memorandum of appeal
Every memorandum
of appeal shall be in triplicate and shall be accompanied with two
copies (at least one of which shall be certified copy) of the order of
the Presiding Officer of Debts Recovery Tribunal or order made by the
Recovery Officer under section 30 of the Act, as the case may be,
against which the appeal is filed.
(2) Where the
parties to the appeal are being represented by an agent, documents
authorising him to act as such agent shall also be appended to the
appeal. Provided that where an appeal is filed by a legal
practitioner, it shall be accompanied by a duly executed Vakalatnama.
(3) Where a bank
or financial institution is being represented by any of its Officers
to act as Presenting Officer before the Appellate Tribunal, the
document authorising him to act as Presenting Officer shall be
appended to the memorandum of appeal.
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Plural remedies
A memorandum of appeal shall not seek relief or reliefs based on
more than a single cause of action in one single memorandum of appeal
unless the reliefs prayed for are consequential to one another.
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Endorsing copy of appeal to the respondents
A copy of the memorandum of appeal and paper book shall be served on
each of the respondents, as soon as they are filed, by the Registrar
by registered post.
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Filing of reply to the appeal and other
documents by the respondent
(1) The respondent
may file four complete sets containing the reply to the appeal
alongwith documents in a paper book form with the registry within one
month of the service of the notice on him of the filing of the
memorandum of appeal.
(2) The respondent
shall also endorse one copy of the reply to the appeal alongwith
documents as mentioned in sub-rule(1) to the appellant.
(3) The Appellate
Tribunal may, in its discretion on application by the respondent,
allow the filing of reply referred to in sub-rule (1), after the
expiry of the period referred to therein.
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Who may be joined as respondents
(1) In an appeal
by a person other than bank or financial institution, the bank or
financial institution who has to recover any debt from any person
under section 19 of the Act, before the Tribunal against whose order
the appeal has been preferred, shall be made the respondent to the
appeal.
(2) In an appeal
by the bank or a financial institution the other party shall be made
the respondent to the appeal.
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Date and place of hearing to be notified.
The Appellate Tribunal shall notify the parties the date and place
of hearing of the appeal in such a manner as the Presiding Officer may
by general or special order direct.
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Dress Regulations for the Presiding Officer
and for the Representative of the Parties
(1) Summer dress
for the Presiding Officer shall be white pant with black coat and a
black tie or a buttoned-up black coat. In winter, striped or black
trousers may be worn in place of white trousers. In the case of female
Presiding Officers, however, the dress shall be black coat over white
saree.
(2) The dress for
the agent of the parties (other than a relative or regular employee of
the appellant or respondent) appearing before the Appellate Tribunal
shall be the following, namely:-
(a) In the
case of a male, a suit with a tie or buttoned-up coat over a pant or
national dress, that is, a long buttoned-up coat on dhoti or churidar
pyjama. The colour of the coat shall, preferably, be black.
(b) In the
case of female, black coat over white or any other sober coloured
saree.
(c) Where,
however, the agent belongs to a profession like that of lawyers or a
chartered accountants and they have been prescribed a dress for
appearing in their professional capacity before any Court, Appellate
Tribunal, tribunal or other such authority, they may, at their option,
appear in that dress, in lieu of the dress mentioned above.
(3) All other
persons appearing before the Appellate Tribunal shall be properly
dressed.
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Order to be signed and dated
(1) Every order of
the Appellate Tribunal shall be in writing and shall be signed and
dated by the Presiding Officer of the Appellate Tribunal.
(2) The
order shall be pronounced in open Court.
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Publication of orders.
The orders of the Appellate Tribunal as are deemed fit for
publication in any authoritative report or the press may be released
for such publication on such terms and conditions as the Appellate
Tribunal may lay down.
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Communication of orders.-
Every order passed on an appeal shall be communicated to the appellant
and to the respondent and to the Tribunal concerned either in person
or by registered post free of cost.
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Fee for inspection of records and obtaining
copies thereof
(1) A fee of
rupees twenty for every hour or part thereof of inspection subject to
a minimum of rupees one hundred shall be charged for inspecting the
records of a pending appeal by a party thereto.
(2) A fee of
rupees five for a folio or part thereof not involving typing and a fee
of rupees ten for a folio or part thereof involving typing of
statement and figures shall be charged.
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Orders and directions in certain cases.
The Appellate Tribunal may make such orders or give such directions
as may be necessary or expedient to give effect to its orders or to
prevent abuse of its process or to secure the ends of justice.
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Working hours of the Appellate Tribunal
(1) Except on
Saturdays, Sundays and other public holidays, the offices of the
Appellate Tribunal shall, subject to any other order made by the
Presiding Officer, re_self open daily from 10 a.m to 6.00 p.m. but no
work, unless of an urgent nature, shall be admitted after 4.30 p.m. on
any working day.
(2) The sitting
hours of the Appellate Tribunal shall ordinarily be from 10.30 a.m. to
1.00 p.m. and 2.00 p.m. to 5.00p.m. subject to any order made by the
Presiding Officer.
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Holiday.
Where the last day for doing any act falls on a day on which the
office of the Appellate Tribunal is closed and by reason thereof the
act cannot be done on that day, it may be done on the next day on
which that office opens.
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Powers and functions of the Registrar
(1) The Registrar
shall have the custody of the records of the Appellate Tribunal and
shall exercise such other functions as are assigned to him under these
rules or by the Presiding Officer by a separate order in writing.
(2) The official
seal shall be kept in the custody of the Registrar.
(3) Subject
to any general or special direction by the Presiding Officer, the seal
of the Appellate Tribunal shall not be affixed to any order, summons
or other process, save under the authority in writing from the
Registrar.
(4) The seal
of the Appellate Tribunal shall not be affixed to any certified copy
issued by the Tribunal save under the authority in writing of the
Registrar.
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Additional powers and duties of Registrar.
In addition to the powers conferred elsewhere in these rules, the
Registrar shall have the following powers and duties subject to any
general or special orders of the Presiding Officer, namely:-
(1)
To receive all appeals and other documents;
(2)
To decide all questions arising out of the scrutiny of the
appeals before they are registered;
(3)
To require any appeal presented to the Appellate Tribunal to be
amended in accordance with the rules;
(4)
Subject to the directions of the Presiding Officer to fix date
of hearing of the appeals or other proceedings and issue notices
thereof;
(5)
Direct any formal amendment of records;
(6)
To order grant of copies of documents to parties to
proceedings;
(7)
To grant leave to inspect the record of Appellate Tribunal.
(8)
Dispose of all matters relating to the service of notices or
other processes, application for the issue of fresh notice or for
extending the time for or ordering a particular method of service on a
respondent including a substituted service by publication of the
notice by way of advertisements in the newspapers;
(9)
To requisition records from the custody of any Court or other
authority.
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Seal and emblem.
The Official seal and emblem of the Appellate Tribunal shall be such
as the Central Government may specify.
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