Bombay HC Orders SBI To Pay ₹5,000 Per Day Since 2023 Over Lost Property Deeds
Mumbai: Banks are legally obligated to safely maintain and return original property documents once a loan is fully repaid, the Bombay High Court ruled, ordering the State Bank of India (SBI) to compensate a Mumbai-based firm Rs 5,000 per day, from December 2023, for misplaced title deeds. A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Ravindra Ghuge and Justice Gautam Ankhad issued the direction while…
The Bombay High Court has ordered the State Bank of India (SBI) to pay ₹5,000 per day to M/s In Vogue Creations, a Mumbai-based firm, for misplaced title deeds since December 2023. The court ruled that banks are legally obligated to safely maintain and return original property documents once a loan is fully repaid. In this case, SBI failed to return the original title documents for two commercial properties located in Prabhadevi and Taloja, which were deposited with the bank in 1979 to secure credit facilities.
The bank had claimed that the documents could not be traced following a branch relocation, but the court emphasized that internal administrative delays or branch shifts do not excuse a failure of custody. The court directed SBI to reconstruct the documents within 12 weeks and provided them with a grace period of 12 weeks to complete the task.
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