Judges not enthused by hope

If debt recovery could be speeded up with the stroke of a pen, creditors stand a good chance after the amendment to the Debt Recovery Act in August. 

When the Supreme Court was hearing a case on Wednesday about huge non-performing assets in banks, the Solicitor General told the Chief Justice’s bench that the law had been amended to tackle delays before tribunals. 

Now the proceedings have to be completed in two hearings. Judges were taken aback by the audacity of hope and asked, “That means one day you move the petition and at the next hearing you get the judgment?” The government counsel retracted and clarified that previously, the tribunal was enjoined to “to make an endeavour” to complete the case in six months, but the amended law says that “every effort shall be made to complete the proceedings in two hearings”. 

The judges did not seem convinced because only last week they had decided a tax case after 37 years.