The Gujarat High Court has strongly reprimanded SBI (State Bank of India), the largest government lender in the country. In a land deal case, the court has slammed the bank for not issuing NOC (No Due Certificate) to a farmer after only 31 paise was left on him. The court told the bank that it is nothing but harassment.

Justice Bhargava Karia, while hearing a petition, expressed displeasure towards SBI. Justice Karia said that this has reached the limit, a nationalized bank says that NOC cannot be issued because only 31 paise remains outstanding. The petitioners Rakesh Verma and Manoj Verma had bought a piece of land in the year 2020 from farmer Shamjibhai and his family in Khorja village near Ahmedabad city.

Shamjibhai had sold the land to the petitioner for Rs 3 lakh even before he could repay the crop loan taken from SBI in full. In such a situation, the petitioner (the new owner of the land) could not get his name registered in the revenue records due to the bank's outstanding charges on that piece of land. However, the farmer later repaid the entire loan of the bank, but despite this SBI did not issue NOC.

After this, Swami Verma, the new owner of the land, approached the High Court. During the hearing on Wednesday, Justice Karia ordered the production of a certificate of non-payment of bank dues in the court. On this, SBI's lawyer Anand Gogia said, "This is not possible, as the farmer still owes 31 paise. This is a systemic matter."

On this reply of the bank, Justice Karia said that the amount less than 50 paise should be ignored and NOC should be issued in this case, because the farmer has already repaid the entire loan. At the same time, when Gogia said that the manager has given oral orders not to give NOC, Justice Karia expressed displeasure and directed the advocate to ask the manager to appear in the court. He said that the Banking Regulatory Act says that the amount less than 50 paise should not be counted.

Gujrat HC Slams SBI Over Not Issuing NOC