SEETHA KUMARI Vs. BAJAJ FINANCE LIMITED

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present petition has been filed by the petitioner under Sec. 11 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 seeking appointment of Arbitrator for adjudication of disputes with respondent.

(2.) Petitioner- Seetha Kumar claims to be engaged in a borrower-lender relationship with the respondent since 2015. Petitioner had availed Loan Against Securities from respondent between 2015 to 2018 which came to be paid off in full. Around September 2018, petitioner further availed loan against securities for an amount of Rs.10.00 crores for the period of 24 months. Petitioner was granted additional loan of Rs.10.00 crore for a period of 24 months vide letter dtd. 2/5/2019 and Loan cum Pledge cum Guarantee Agreement dtd. 3/5/2019. Accordingly, the total sanctioned loan was Rs.20.00 crores, which was adequately secured by holding securities in form of shares of two listed companies namely, Hinduja Global Solutions Ltd. and Jindal Poly Film Ltd. with margin of 100% to the satisfaction of the respondent.

(3.) Learned counsel for petitioner has submitted that margin of 100% was always maintained throughout the tenure of the said loan except on one occasion for one day, which was triggered due to the heavy crash in Indian and World Stock Markets because of the unprecedent Covid crises in the month of March, 2020. Even that day i.e. on 25/3/2020, the margin did not trigger or fall below 85% mark. Thereafter, on 25/3/2020, respondent sent an email to the petitioner at around 10:37 a.m. to replenish the shortfall in the margin within a day and the account of the petitioner stood overdrawn by Rs.27,15,671.00. Immediately within less than an hour of receiving the abovesaid email, petitioner replenished the shortfall and informed the respondent 's concerned officer.