A demand notice under Section 13(2) gives sixty days. A possession notice follows. Then a sale notice with a date printed on it, and by the time most people telephone a lawyer, that date is eleven days away.
What is lost in the waiting is not time but remedy. The representation under Section 13(3A) can only be made while the sixty days are running, and the bank's failure to answer it with reasons is one of the better grounds available later. Once the period lapses, that ground lapses with it.
The same is true of the right of redemption. Since the 2016 amendment it survives only until the auction notice is published. A borrower who arranges funds a week after publication has arranged them a week too late, and no amount of sympathy at the hearing will restore what the statute has closed.
There is a second cost, less obvious. A file assembled in haste is assembled badly. Certified copies take days to obtain. The valuation report that shows the reserve price was fixed low has to be applied for. Court searches in the names of four previous owners cannot be compressed into an afternoon. An application filed without them asserts rather than proves.
The advice I give most often is also the least welcome: bring the notice on the day it arrives, not on the day it becomes frightening. The work is cheaper then, the options are wider, and the tribunal has time to hear you properly.
What clients want to know
How long do I have to file under Section 17?
Forty-five days from the date of the measure complained of. Delay can be condoned, but the application has to explain it.
Can the auction be stopped after the notice is published?
An application to stay can be made on proper grounds. Whether it succeeds depends on the defects the notice carries, which is why the notice itself is the first thing read.
General commentary on Indian practice, not advice on any particular matter. Law and procedure differ between states and change over time.