This refers to the report about taking possession of a mortgaged asset by a Bank under SARFAESI Act and and subsequent developments at Muvattupuzha .
Personally I feel that both the bank and the MLA have erred grossly in the issue. First let us take the case of the bank. It may be true that the bank might have followed the prescribed procedure under SARFAESI Act for recovering the defaulted loan. But the act provides for taking symbolic possession under sec 13(4) by serving the possession notice on the owner against acknowledgment. The actual possession is taken only after a sale of the property is effected subsequently. And as far as I know the bank cannot evict the occupants and keep the custody of the property without am actual sale taking place. In the instant case the bank has erred grossly in as much as locking the property after evicting the minor girls when the defaulter was known to be admitted in hospital for treatment. No sky would have fallen if the bank had waited for teh defaulter to return from hospital before taking such a drastic step. Such inhuman acts on the part of a co operative bank (governed by a party which is branded as a poor man's party!) leaves the other bankers also in a bad light, which should have been avoided.
Now let us consider the act of the MLA in breaking open the lock of the house , which was declared to be under banks possession through the notice displayed there. This act can at the most be called an act for cheap publicity. Who has given power to the MLA (whom I like as a young, clean politician) to trespass into a property and break open the door? Will he be booked by the police for this criminal offence? Should an MLA take law into his hands whatever be the provocation? Is he not expected to be a model for any law abiding citizen? Mr Kuzhalnadan could have taken the girls to a proper shelter and arrange to liquidate the bank dues (as he has offered) and legally take back possession of the house and hand it over to the family, which would have remained as a.noble gesture in the minds of the people. The present act could have got him some momentary applauses , which he could have lived without, I am sure.
