Bank auctions house wrongly ! ~ Squash Gold medalist auctioned his kidney

கொடிது கொடிது வறுமை கொடிது; அதனினும் கொடிது இளமையில் வறுமை ~ great words of Tamil poetess Avvaiyar [of all poverty is cruel ~ poverty at young age is more cruel !]

Under Insurance contract, the Insurer upon receipt of consideration, agrees to indemnify the Insured in respect of loss or damage caused by an insured peril.  In arriving at the value of loss i.e., the outgo of the Insurer, the Company is dependent on qualified Surveyor / Loss assessors who are authorized by the regulatory body IRDA.  There could be another third party – the investigator, whose role could be of strategic importance. Ever imagined what could happen if these reports become unreliable ! ~ and this is a post on ‘Auctions’

An auction is a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bid, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder.  Wait, it may be open / concealed and need not be the highest too !  there could be minimum benchmark price too.  In economic theory, an auction may refer to any mechanism or set of trading rules for exchange.  Mad fans of Cricket have been following Richard Madley who conducted the first IPL auction and a few others thereafter in what was touted to be biggest sports auction in the world – cannot imagine how much he would have charged the IPL for this ?

There was another auction that  shook the Nation and had some heads rolling – it is stated to be much deeper than it has been portrayed – ‘spectrum auction’  whence  mobile telephony companies were allotted frequency allocation licenses, which they would then use to create 2G subscriptions for cell phones.  Internationally, there occurs many a auctions – in June 2015, a  rare Hermès bag set a new record for the most expensive handbag ever sold at auction – going for HK$1.72m (£146,000) (Rs.1.42 crores approx). 

Recently, there was auction of a different sort in IPL - it was reverse bidding which selected the two new franchisees.  Under reverse bidding investors were encouraged to bid for lower than the base price of Rs 40 crore set by the IPL. This meant the BCCI would pay a maximum of Rs 40 crore from its central revenue pool to the new owner. The investor who bid the lowest price would eventually bag the ownership rights. Having bid in the negative, New Rising paid  Rs 16 crore while Intex paid  Rs 10 crore to the BCCI per year of their contracts. Do you understand --  where BCCI had to pay – the franchisee enriched the coffers.

TOI Chennai edition of 11.1.2016 had this interesting news : Bank auctions off wrong house, HC orders CBI probe !

A bank auctioned and sold S Indira's sprawling house in Adyar and the buyer promptly demolished it 10 years ago -all without her knowledge or consent -over a bad bank loan her long-time tenant had taken. Suspecting a conspiracy and collusion among various Government agencies, the Madras high court has now ordered a CBI probe, in a rare instance of the court asking the central agency to investigate such a case. Indira's tenant V S Krishnan's company, Maha Krishna Financial Services, made the financial transaction with Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency.

Acting on a report by detective agency Eagle Hunter Solutions, Delhi, which misreported that the tenant was the owner of the house, IREDA put it under the hammer through the Debts Recovery Tribunal. Lambasting everyone involved in the case, Justice A Selvamsaid, “the main contention of Indira is that with active conspiracy of the people concerned, the property has been attached, sold in public auction and subsequently, demolished. Simply because DRT has statutory protection, the court cannot close its eyes in a case like this without directing CBI to conduct an investigation.

In fact, it is pathetic to note that the petitioner has lost her property for no mistake of hers.Indira purchased the house in Kasturba Nagar, Adyar, in 1974 and rented it to Krishnan around 30 years ago. For three years prior to the bank auctioning the property in 2003, her tenant had stopped paying her rent. When she saw an auction notice pasted on the compound wall of her house, Indira sent a legal notice to the recovery officer of DRT-I in Delhi, explaining that she was the owner of the property and the proposed auction could not take place. In spite of her objection, IREDA auctioned the property.

Indira in 2006 filed a petition seeking CBI probe after police refused to register an FIR, stating that the case was a civil dispute. Debunking the detective agency's report as “waste paper“, Justice Selvam on Thursday said the agency had given a slipshod report without verification of documents and merely on the basis of questioning some people. He also questioned why the authorities accepted the report and acted on it without any documents and due diligence. Rejecting the submission, Justice Selvam directed the CBI to conduct a preliminary inquiry on charges in Indira's complaint and proceed against those concerned if sufficient evidence is available.

Concluding on a sad note, Economic Times reports that Ravi Dixit, a 20-year-old squash player who won gold in the 2010 Asian junior championship, has "auctioned" his kidney to fund his campaign for next month's South Asian Games. Dixit had posted on social media that he wants to sell his kidney and asked interested buyers to bid for it.  "I have been playing squash for the last 10 years. Even after winning so many medals and representing India so many times, I do not get any support to take my squash to the national and international levels," Dixit said. "Dhampur Sugar Mill has supported me but how long will they continue to support me? Next month, the games are starting in Guwahati and I am representing India. To prepare for the tournament, I am training in Chennai but I have not been able to arrange enough money to fund my campaign  ..  Dixit reportedly wrote. Dixit's attempt to sell his kidney, illegal under law, has his parents worried. Ramkailash Dixit, his father, said, "I have spoken to Ravi. He is in Chennai right now but I spoke to him on the phone. His mother and I are imploring him not to take the step. Together, we will figure out a way to deal with this crisis. This way, he will ruin both his life and career. I am saddened to hear that my son is taking such a drastic measure said his father full of sorrow.

Regards – S. Sampathkumar.

12^th Jan 2016

PS :  A day after the reported “auction”  online -  offers for help  started pouring in from all quarters;  somewhat chastised Ravi Dixit apologised for the controversy and said he didn't want to hurt his family and those who have supported him. Thankfully, he is not driven to such a measure.