The Delhi High Court on Monday issued a notice to the National Housing Bank (NHB) on a plea alleging that PNB Housing Finance Limited was introducing schemes allowing upfront disbursal of sanctioned individual housing loans to the builders without linking the disbursals to various stages of construction of the housing project.
A Bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice Anup J. Bhambhani issued notices to the NHB, a subsidiary of RBI, and PNB Housing Finance Limited and sought their stand on the plea by August 9.
The petition by Abhijit Mishra has claimed that PNB Housing Finance was defaulting on NHB’s master circular on disbursement of housing loans to individuals by not linking it with the stages of construction.
“The PNB Housing Finance signed tripartite agreement between the bank, the builder and the buyer of the housing unit,” the petition stated.
‘Exposed to risks’
“Such malicious and illegal predatory lending practice by the PNB Housing Finance Limited has not only exposed the financial institutions as well as their home loan borrowers to additional risks,” it contended.
“There are several disputes on subject such as interest/EMI on the housing loan availed of by the individual borrower that not being serviced by the builders during the construction period/ specified period,” the petition stated, adding: “In such instances, the borrower becomes the victim of the charade”.