The Madras High Court has directed a nationalised bank to refund sale consideration of ₹55.50 lakh, along with 9% interest from 2012, to an auction purchaser of a house since the successful bidder had not been able to take possession of the property till date because it was subsequently found to be located on a land classified as a water body.
Third Division Bench of Justices R. Mahadevan and Mohammed Shaffiq criticised Indian Bank for not taking the responsibility of handing over the property, free of all encumbrances to the auction purchaser D. Karthikeyan and instead making him run from pillar to post seeking refund of the amount that he deposited with the bank 11 years ago.
Disposing of his 2019 writ petition, the judges agreed with the petitioner’s counsel Naveen Kumar Murthy that his client had suffered huge losses in the last 11 years for he would have got handsome returns, through appreciation of property prices, if he had invested the same amount of money to purchase any other property without any encumbrance.
