Mumbai DRTs to hold Lok Adalat on Sept 29

Our Banking Bureau

Mumbai, Sept 17: Mumbai-based debt recovery tribunals (DRTs) will hold a “Lok Adalat” on September 29. The amount for settlements under “Lok Adalat” is sought to be increased to 10 lakh from Rs 5 lakh as per the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recommendation to the finance ministry.

Though there has been no restriction of amount involved in “Lok Adalats”, the RBI applied some restriction for the cases involving banks and financial institutions (FIs). This is the first time that Mumbai DRTs are to conduct an across-the-table settlement under “Lok Adalats”. Earlier, Ahmedabad-based DRT had conducted a “Lok Adalat”. This across-the-table settlement in the nature of “lok adalat” would help to settle disputes between a borrower and the banks/FIs.

It might be recalled that the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) has also taken a decision to an introduce arbitration mechanism to settle disputes and is currently working on formulating guidelines in this regard.