A Bench of Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi and Justice Suraj Govindaraj said that mere pasting of such circular on notice board cannot be treated as wide circulation of circular.
“We are not satisfied with the stand of the Bank in this regard. There was no wide circulation of the circular of the Bank and as such, mere pasting of the circular on notice board can not be treated as wide circulation of the circular,” the Bench observed.
It, therefore, directed the Canara Bank to give a customer the benefit of reduced rates of interest.
The Bench thus dismissed an appeal filed by the bank, challenging an order issued by writ court directing them to give the benefit of reduction in the rate of interest on a loan to the respondents from the date an RBI circular reducing said rates was issued, and not from the date they applied for the reduction of interest rates.
“The Bank has reduced the rate of interest on home loan on the direction issued by RBI as per Government directives and as such, the stand of the Bank is not justified. In our considered opinion a customer would be eligible for reduction immediately on the RBI issuing the circular and the bank cannot impose any additional conditions,” the High Court ruled.
Source: Barandbench
