Under Section 18 of the SARFAESI Act, 2002, an appeal to the Debts Recovery Appellate Tribunal against an order of the Debts Recovery Tribunal under Section 17 is not entertainable unless the borrower deposits a part of the debt due. What is the minimum percentage to which the Appellate Tribunal may, for reasons to be recorded in writing, reduce this deposit?

Under the first proviso to Section 18(1) of the SARFAESI Act, 2002, an appeal against an order of the Debts Recovery Tribunal cannot be entertained unless the borrower has deposited fifty per cent of the amount of debt due as claimed by the secured creditor or as determined by the Debts Recovery Tribunal, whichever is less. The second proviso, however, empowers the Appellate Tribunal, for reasons to be recorded in writing, to reduce the amount of the deposit to not less than twenty-five per cent of the debt. The statutory floor is therefore twenty-five per cent, while fifty per cent is only the default deposit and not the minimum. Figures of ten, fifteen or twenty per cent fall below the statutory minimum and cannot be ordered by the Appellate Tribunal.