Calcutta, March 18: The high court today restrained a bank from selling the house and other properties of a Nandigram grocer after he said he was unable to repay a loan because of last year’s land war.

Justice Dipankar Dutta also asked Punjab National Bank (PNB) to consider the 34-year-old Sheikh Jahangir Salem’s case “sympathetically” and give him more time to repay the loan he had taken in November 2003.

However, the Nandigram branch of the bank said the default had nothing to do with the violence last year — the notice asking Salem to pay his arrears was served at least six months before the trouble started.

“He (Salem) paid only three monthly instalments after he took the loan in 2003. In mid-2006, long before the trouble in Nandigram started, we served him with a notice asking him to pay his arrears immediately. But he didn’t respond,” said Abhoypada Basak, the branch manager.

“Six months ago, we took out a newspaper ad saying his property would be auctioned and he moved court.”

The bank, Basak added, will appeal today’s order.

Salem had mortgaged his house and land to the bank in November 2003 for Rs 2 lakh, which he promised to repay with interest in 60 instalments.

On February 29 this year, the bank demanded Rs 1.71 lakh from him. He was told his house and other properties would be sold if he failed to pay up within a month.

“Last year, the people of Nandigram were busy saving their lives. Trade and business had come to a halt. There was very little transaction even in the banks. How could my client repay the loan?” Salem’s lawyer asked.

Justice Dutta observed that the bank should not be “inhuman” to the grocer, one “among thousands... who experienced tremendous hardship in Nandigram”.