I had taken a personal loan of Rs 2,00,000 in 2005 from a private lending bank and then subsequently I had issued post dated cheques of HSBC Bank for 5 Years repayment. After paying for the loan for 6 months I was finding it difficult depositing the money in the HSBC Bank which is far away from my House hence I later on gave post dated cheques of Oriental Bank of Commerce, the lending bank was presenting the cheques for one Years and later due to Job I had to go out of station and subsequently after 3 months there were two cheque bounces after which they were coming to my house and harassing my parents, I had given my parents 1,50,000 for my insurance premium and there medical expenses I told them to repay the loan since the Lending bank employees were misbehaving, they cleared the total outstanding dues to the tune of Rs 1,30,000 foreclosing the loan in my absence in the year 2007 and subsequently issued a receipt for the same amount and were given the PDC’s of HSBC Bank and closure letter but the PDC’s of Oriental Bank of Commerce were not returned. In 2009 my father passed away. In 2011 an Asset reconstruction Company alleging that they have bought the loan from the lending bank and which has now sent a legal notice stating that I owe them Rs 3,00,000 .I did not keep the receipts in safe custody all I have is the returned PDC’s and over that my father who had foreclosed the loan has passed away. My question is if I had any dues, why did the Bank/ARC keep quiet for so long without corresponding and now after 5 years sent me a legal notice asking for recovery of money, are they not covered by limitation act and can they take action for cheque bounce even if their dues were cleared. Also in worst situation if I am unable to prove that all the outstanding was cleared with the bank what consequences would I have to face, Will I get any relief since it was an unsecured loan. I am enclosing the legal notice as an attachment, Please advise.
