DRAT Appeals & High Court Writs

When the tribunal misinterprets statutory law, overlooks vital evidence, or refuses to grant a stay despite blatant illegalities by the bank, the legal battle must be immediately escalated.

As a firm deeply anchored in the High Court of Uttarakhand, Khokher Advocates provides formidable appellate representation. We seamlessly transition complex banking disputes from the tribunal level to the Debt Recovery Appellate Tribunal (DRAT) and exercise constitutional remedies before the High Court of Uttarakhand, ensuring that arbitrary recovery actions are halted by higher judicial authorities.

DRAT Appeals & Pre-Deposit Waivers (Section 18 SARFAESI)

Filing an appeal before the DRAT against a DRT order requires navigating one of the harshest provisions of the SARFAESI Act: the mandatory pre-deposit. By law, a borrower must deposit 50% of the claimed debt just to have their appeal heard.

Strategic Pre-Deposit Reduction: We aggressively litigate applications to waive and reduce this draconian pre-deposit requirement from 50% down to the statutory minimum of 25%, demonstrating to the Appellate Tribunal that the bank’s claims are inflated or inherently flawed.
Appellate Stays: We prosecute rigorous appeals challenging erroneous DRT dismissal orders, securing appellate stays against ongoing e-auctions and physical eviction drives while the appeal is pending.

High Court Writ Jurisdiction

While the DRT and DRAT are specialized statutory tribunals, they are strictly bound by the limits of their respective Acts. When these tribunals fail to protect fundamental rights, the constitutional power of the High Court must be invoked. We file high-impact Writ Petitions before the High Court of Uttarakhand in scenarios involving:

Violation of Natural Justice: Challenging DRT orders passed ex-parte, without granting the borrower a fair opportunity to be heard, or orders that blatantly ignore settled Supreme Court precedents.
Absence of an Efficacious Remedy: When the DRT is non-functional, the Presiding Officer is unavailable, or the tribunal is structurally unable to grant urgent relief, we bypass the statutory mechanism and move the High Court directly to protect your assets.
Ultra Vires Bank Actions: Challenging systemic illegalities by financial institutions, such as the unlawful freezing of entire corporate bank accounts or aggressive recoveries that bypass mandatory RBI Master Circulars.

High-Stakes Corporate Restructuring Appeals

For MSMEs and large corporate entities, an adverse DRT ruling can result in immediate corporate liquidation. We utilize appellate and writ jurisdictions to enforce mandatory corporate debt restructuring (CDR) frameworks, challenging banks that unlawfully reject One-Time Settlements (OTS) or withdraw from rehabilitation packages. Our appellate strategy is singularly focused on keeping the business operational and the core assets intact.