Calcutta High Court on Monday issued a stay on a takeover notice issued by Birla Home Finance Company to a woman who had defaulted on repaying a loan.

“The bank had violated the Security Interests Act, 2002, by issuing the possession notice before issuing a defaulters’ notice to my client,” flat-owner Sandipa Mitra’s lawyer Biswadev Roy Chowdhury said.

The lawyer said Mitra had taken a loan of Rs 2 lakh from Birla Home Finance Company in 2002 to purchase a flat. “She was to repay the loan in 78 instalments. She paid 66 of them on time,” the lawyer said.

“Recently, the company wrote to my client asking her to vacate the flat. It said it would take possession of the flat,” Roy Chowdhury said.

He argued that the company should have issued a notice asking for the 12 unpaid instalments. “But the company, instead, waited for 12 months and then issued the takeover letter,” he said. The company had no right to take such a step, he added.