The Andhra Pradesh High Court dismissed a writ petition challenging a Canara Bank communication about dismantling non-hypothecated machinery left at an already-auctioned property, holding that the petitioner had an effective alternative remedy before the Debts Recovery Tribunal and had, in fact, already approached the DRT. The court relied on the Supreme Court's Satyawati Tondon and PHR Invent Educational Society precedents that bar writ petitions where a statutory SARFAESI remedy is available.
What this changes for a title check
This confirms the settled rule that a borrower or guarantor cannot bypass the Debts Recovery Tribunal by going straight to a High Court writ petition once SARFAESI proceedings, including auction, are underway or complete, so for a lawyer advising a client on a SARFAESI-affected property, a writ petition challenging bank action should be treated as a weak, likely-to-be-dismissed route unless genuinely exceptional circumstances exist. The DRT, not the High Court, remains the practical forum for contesting bank conduct in an ongoing SARFAESI matter.
The specific fact pattern, machinery left behind at an auctioned property that was not part of the original hypothecation, is also a useful reminder for title and asset diligence on any SARFAESI-auctioned industrial property: a buyer or lender should separately verify what movable assets on site were actually covered by the original security interest, since non-hypothecated items can become a live dispute between the borrower and bank even after the immovable property itself has changed hands through auction.