SANGEETA MANDAVI Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard. The present writ petition has been filed by the petitioner on the following relief(s) :

(2.) By filing the present petition, the petitioner is challenging the illegal and unauthorized action on the part of Respondent No. 05 to Respondent No. 07 (hereinafter referred as 'Respondent Banks') whereby multiple personal loans of exorbitant amount (Rs.25,34,000.00 in the present petition) have been sanctioned in the name of more than 300 victims of fraud including the petitioner herein (hereinafter collectively referred as 'victims') without receiving any application from the victims themselves. Respondent No. 08 and Respondent No. 09 (hereinafter referred as 'Private Respondents') are the Direct Selling Agents (hereinafter referred as 'DSA') of the Respondent Banks and multiple personal loans were approved and sanctioned by the Respondent Banks in the name of victims via single OTP with the help of Private Respondents. The Private Respondents committed fraud upon the victims by convincing the victims to invest 50% of loan amount in their personal bank accounts and promised to provide high rate of interest /returns.

(3.) The challenge is also made against the manner in which the Respondent Banks have sanctioned the personal loan of the victims in gross violations of the notification, guideline, and circular issued by the Reserve Bank of India (hereinafter referred as 'RBI') titled 'Reset of Floating Interest Rate on Equated Monthly Installments (EMI) based Personal Loans dtd. 18/8/2023, Guidelines on Fair Practices Code for Lenders dtd. 5/5/2003 and recent Master Circular on Management of Advances dtd. 1/4/2025, respectively. The detailed advisory and caution regarding sanctioning of personal loans has been provided by RBI to all the Scheduled Commercial Banks, Regional Rural Banks, Primary Co-operative Banks, State Co-operative Banks, and Non-Banking Financial Companies (including Housing Finance Companies). However, without following the guidelines, notifications, and the circulars the Respondent Banks have sanctioned multiple personal loans of exorbitant amount on single OTP without any application from victims and after disbursement of sanctioned loan, 50% of amount is transferred to another bank account with the help of Private Respondent and the officers of Respondent Banks.