Mumbai: A bank seeking to recover a loan amount via mortgaged properties in Mumbai found out too late that they are reserved as recreation grounds (RGs). Unable to sell at an auction, Central Bank of India approached the Bombay high court for directions to change the reservation.The HC would have none of it. The court dismissed the bank’s plea as “completely meritless,” on not one but two counts. “Firstly, it is at the instance of the bank who is of the opinion that it is unable to sell the plot mortgaged with it, as it falls within the RG reservation” under the development plan and secondly, the “development plans cannot be changed and modified at the whims and fancies of any particular party at any particular point of time,” Justices Bharti Dangre and Manjusha Deshpande observed in a June 10 order.The mortgaged area of plots cumulatively measuring 1,400 sq m falls in Chandivli in the eastern suburbs where the population ratio is dense and open grounds scarce.No lawyer appeared for the bank. For the BMC, its counsel Dhruti Kapadia opposed the bank’s petition as untenable.The petition was filed in 2019. A BMC affidavit of 2019 by its executive engineer (Development Plan), opposing the petition was “inadvertently” not filed, the HC noted.The grievance of the PSU bank was that it sanctioned a loan to a private company which defaulted but the plots were mortgaged. The bank went to the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT), Mumbai, to initiate recovery proceedings under the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002 (SARFAESI Act) against the guarantors and also moved the chief metropolitan magistrate to take physical possession of the lands. In 2018 after a court nod it took possession of the land.In Sept 2018, when it put up the plots in the L ward for auction, it learned of its DP plan reservation and consequential bar on sale. The bank thus moved HC. It sought directions to drop its RG tag. The BMC cited the law and said the Draft DP 2034 is prepared after a rigorous process involving suggestions and objections from the public, any modifications require a rigorous process under Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act, in exceptional circumstances.Given the bank’s only reason was its inability to sell plots to recover its loan the HC said, adding, “In fact, the bank ought to have been careful before accepting the mortgage… and in ensuring that the property does not fall within any reservation zone, so that the bank could not be in a position to realise its amount if at all there was a failure on part of the borrower and the guarantors to discharge its obligation.”
