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In a move to improve the efficiency of Debt Recovery Tribunals (DRTs) and Debt Recovery Appellate Tribunals (DRATs), M. Nagaraju, Secretary of the Department of Financial Services (DFS), chaired a conference of chairpersons of DRATs and presiding officers of DRTs in the capital on Saturday.
According to the Ministry of Finance, the meeting addressed issues such as reducing pendency, adopting best practices, optimising recoveries, and rolling out the new DRT Regulations 2024. The primary focus of the discussions was on streamlining the recovery process through improved mechanisms and collaborative efforts from all stakeholders, including banks, financial institutions, and tribunals. The conference underscored the need for banks to implement more effective monitoring and oversight mechanisms to manage the rising number of pending cases in DRTs. The aim is to reduce case backlogs and accelerate recoveries. Some of the best practices from well-functioning DRTs were highlighted and proposed for adoption across all tribunals. These practices are expected to improve recovery outcomes and ensure consistency in operations across the country. Banks were urged to devise distinct policies for small and high-value cases pending in DRTs. A well-defined strategy would ensure that resources are allocated efficiently and recovery processes are optimised based on case value and complexity. During discussions on formulating settlement policies, it was recommended that banks factor in transaction costs when pursuing recovery in pending cases. This approach would help ensure that recoveries are financially viable and sustainable for all parties involved. Stakeholders, including banks, tribunals, and government officials, agreed on the need for collective efforts to reduce the overall pendency of cases. This would enable the release of capital that is currently locked in unresolved cases, injecting it back into the economy for productive use. The DRT Regulations 2024, which offer several improvements over the 2015 framework, were discussed in detail. These regulations are designed to make the DRT process more effective, transparent, and time-efficient. They are set to be adopted across all tribunals, marking a critical step towards making debt recovery faster and more predictable. The meeting saw participation from key stakeholders, including senior officers from both public and private sector banks, the Deputy CEO of the Indian Banks Association (IBA), and senior officials from the Ministry of Finance. (ANI)
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