Thinley Namgay

The curtain has finally fallen on the long drawn legal battle between Bhutan National Bank (BNB) and private individual Penjore over loan repayment default for the latter’s hotel in Bumthang.

The Supreme Court upheld the lower court’s decision on July 11, dismissing Penjore’ petition to the apex court requesting for the review of Bumthang Dzongkhag’s court’s judgement in 2016.

The Bumthang Dzongkhag Court had ordered Penjore to repay the loan that he availed of from BNB for the hotel construction. That judgement states that Penjore did not pay any loan until February 2016, which amounted to Nu 25.268 million, including principal and interest amount.

The Dzongkhag court had ordered Penjore to repay the loans within three months of issuing the verdict, failing which, BNB could auction the mortgaged land and properties to recuperate the money. The hotel had remained closed since 2016 as the case was subjudice.

BNB tried to auction Penjore’s Bumthang hotel and other mortgaged properties yesterday. However, due to the minimal number of bidders and low prices offered by these bidders, BNB decided to re-auction the properties at a more favourable time in the future.

BNB officials said that as per the Court’s decision, the ownership of the hotel was transferred to BNB a few years back after Penjore refused to pay the loans. The rate of the mortgaged properties were calculated and set by the Court and the case has been already settled, BNB officials said.    

Based on Penjore’s  petition to revisit the decisions of the lower courts, the Supreme Court  reviewed the case based on section 31.2 of the Civil and Criminal Procedure Code (CCPC) of Bhutan 2021. The section states  that a petitioner should have legal standing and the petition must involve a concrete case or controversy.    

The Supreme Court dismissed the case based on section 32.1 of the CCPC. The section states that the court will make an initial determination whether sufficient legal cause exists to admit the case for proceedings according to the law, hear the case within the prescribed period, or give written reasons, if the petition of a party is dismissed.