‘Banks should declare properties under mortgage’

A PIL filed before the Bombay High Court has sought a court direction to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to ask all the banks in the country to publish a list of all properties mortgaged with them so that buyers of the properties are not cheated.

The PIL, filed by Borivili resident Rajendra Thacker, states that in many cases buyers purchase a flat in housing schemes, not knowing that the land or the building is mortgaged to a bank, and the title is not with the builder.

Thacker, in his petition, stated that he had experienced this when an advertisement for Evershine Global City and Rustomjee Estate in Virar got him interested. However, later he saw a public notice in a newspaper on January 5, 2009, issued by Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL) stating that Evershine had mortgaged a part of the land to Syndicate Bank, through HDIL, for a loan of Rs90 crore in 2005, and hence HDIL and the Syndicate Bank had a claim over the land.

Thacker’s advocate Sumedha Rao told the court that the brochure of the scheme did not mention that the land was mortgaged with the Syndicate Bank and it was also distributed at a real estate expo on March 4.  The RBI lawyer said that when a mortgage deed is signed, it is a deemed notice to the general public.

Chief Justice Kumar and Justice DY Chandrachud have asked the RBI and the builders to file their reply to the PIL in four weeks. The PIL has also urged the court to direct banks to erect boards on properties that are mortgaged with them.