(1) If a creditor or a debtor, as the case may be, challenges the genuineness or enforceability or the total amount of debt or principal or rate of interest or amount of interest or date of raising of any debt included in an application, the Forum shall adjudicate upon the issue.
(2) The Forum shall determine in the case of each debt, shown in the application made by the debtor or his creditor under section 9 or in the statement furnished by the creditor under section 12, other than a debt, declared nongenuine or unenforceable, the principal amount originally advanced, the amount paid by the debtor towards the principal or interest or both and the amount of principal and interest payable as notified under this Act.
(3) The Forum shall decide every application submitted under section 9 within a period of three months from the date of application.
(4) Where the debtor is found to have repaid to the creditor an amount equal to, or exceeding, double the principal amount, or the debtor on being apprised of such finding, pays any amount, which makes the total reрауmеnt equal to double the amount of principal, the Forum shall declare the debt as fully discharged and thereupon the provisions of clause (b) of section 3, shall apply.
(5) The Forum shall keeping in view the outstanding amount of principal and interest as determined under sub-section (2), and the paying capacity of the debtor, order the repayment of the amount of debt, settled or determined in such installments as it may deem fit.
(6) If the Forum finds that the provisions of the Punjab Regulation of Accounts, Act, 1930, have not been complied with by the creditor, it may, for the reasons to be recorded in writing disallow the interest partly or wholly for the period of non-compliance. The creditor shall issue a duly authenticated passbook to the debtor, clearly giving the details of his loan account.
15. The Forum and the Tribunal may exercise all such powers with referrence to summoning and examining of parties and witnesses and with the production of Powers of the Forum and Tribunal to summon.
Power of the Forum to adjudicate.
documents, as are conferred on Civil Courts by the Code of Civil Procedures 1908 (Central Act 5 of 1908) and every proceeding before the Forum and the Tribunal shall be deemed to be judicial proceedings.
16. Notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force, if the Forum has reason to believe-
(a) that the interest charged by the creditor, is excessive; or
(b) that the transaction between the parties thereto, was substantially unfair;
the Forum shall exercise all or any of the following powers, namely: -
(i) re-open the transaction, take an account between the parties and relieve the debtor of all liabilities in respect of any excessive interest;
(ii) notwithstanding any agreement, purporting to close previous dealing and to create a new obligation, re-open any account, already taken between them and relieve the debtor of all liabilities in respect of any excessive interest, and if anything has been paid or allowed in account in respect of such liabilities, order the creditor to repay any sum, which it considers to be repayable in respect thereof; and
(iii) set aside either wholly or in part or revise or alter any security given or agreement made in respect of any loan, and if the creditor has parted with the security, order him to indemnify the debtor in such manner and to such extent, as it may deem fair and proper:
Provided that, in the exercise of these powers, the Forum shall not –
(i) re-open any agreement purporting to close previous dealings and to create a new obligation which has been Re-opening of transaction.
entered into by the parties or any persons from whom they claim at a date, more than five years from the date of the transaction; and
(ii) do anything which affects any decree of a civil court passed before the commencement of this Act.
Explanation:
(1) In the case of an application brought on a series of transaction, the expression "transaction" means for the purpose of clause (i) of the proviso, the first of such transactions.
(2) The interest, shall be deemed to be excessive, if it exceeds the rate of interest notified under this Act.
17. If once an application has been disposed of, the Forum shall not entertain subsequent application for the same cause of action between the same parties.
18. If any question arises in any proceedings under this Act as to whether a loan, or liability is a debt or not or whether a person is a debtor or not, the decision of the Forum shall be final, and shall not be called in question in any Civil Court.
19. No civil court shall entertain: -
(a) any suit, appeal or application for revision -
(i) to question the validity of any procedure or the legality of any order or award made under this Act; or
(ii) to recover any debt, which is deemed to have been duly discharged, under the provisions of this Act; or
(b) any suit for declaration, or any suit or application for injunction, affecting any proceedings under this Act before the Forum.