LHC stays auction of mortgaged property

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

LAHORE: Justice Farrukh Irfan Khan of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday stayed the auction of a mortgaged property under Article 10-A of the constitution.

Taffazul H Rizvi, counsel for petitioner Kashifa Jamal, submitted that she mortgaged her property situated at Faisalabad with a Dubai bank for a finance facility of Rs 13 million. He said that the petitioner’s husband Jamal Anwar was also an employee of the bank at the time of mortgage.

He said the bank on July 25, 2009, got registered a case against the petitioner and her husband on the allegation that the mortgaged property was under valued.

He said the police took her husband in custody and later released him on bail after he deposited Rs 4.6 million with the bank.

The counsel said the bank gave an advertisement in newspapers to the effect that it was going to auction the mortgaged property under section 15(4) of the Financial Institutions (Recovery of Finance) Ordinance, 2001 itself without intervention of court. The counsel said after the insertion of Article 10-A to the constitution in 18th amendment, it was now mandatory that every person be provided the right of fair trial and power of bank to sell a mortgaged property during pendency of case in court was now ultra vires to the constitution.