(1.) Petitioner is a first year MBBS student in the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Belgaum. Parents of the Petitioner are lawyers. She made an application to the Haripad Branch of the Indian Overseas Bank for an education loan of 10 lakhs. Ext.P3 is the copy of the scheme for education loan. According to the Petitioner, as collateral security for the loan, her parents had offered 38 cents of property of a near relative, which was valued by the Bank at 46,30,000/-. However, when the Petitioner went to the Bank to avail of the loan, she was handed over Ext.P6, a communication issued by the Chief Manager of the Bank addressed to the Haripad Branch, expressing their inability to consider the proposal for the reasons mentioned therein. The reasons mentioned in Ext.P6 are the following:
(2.) Relying on Ext.P3, counsel for the Petitioner contended that the nearest/convenient branch of the Respondent Bank was at Haripad and it was therefore that the application was made to that branch. As far as the second objection that the property offered as security does not belong to the parents of the Petitioner is concerned, Ext.P3 itself is relied on to contend that the collateral security could be that of third parties. Counsel further contended that the objection that very few transactions were carried out in the SB account of the parents is incorrect, in view of the entries in Ext.P8 pass book. As far as the 4th objection mentioned in Ext.P6 is concerned, it is submitted that nobody asked for such documents and that therefore the loan could not have been denied on that ground.
(3.) On the other hand, the objections raised by the learned Counsel for the Respondents are several. It was contended that a District Level Committee has been constituted and that, if the Petitioner is aggrieved, Petitioner has a right to take up her grievances before the District Level Committee, of which the Chairman is the District Collector. It is also stated that, as per the RBI guidelines, applications should have made to the branch, which is the nearest to the residence of the applicants and the applicants should have an operating account in the branch to which application is made.