Section 14 in The Haryana Relief of Agricultural Indebtedness Act, 1976
14. Power of debt settlement officer to adjudicate.
(1)If a creditor or a debtor, as the case may be, challenges the genuineness or enforceability of any debt included in an application, the debt settlement officer shall adjudicate upon the issue.(2)Any person aggrieved by a decision of the debt settlement officer under sub-section (1) may appeal therefrom to the Collector :Provided that an appeal shall not lie from an order refusing to review or confirming on review a previous order.(3)The period of limitation for an appeal under this section shall run from the date of the order appealed against and shall be thirty days.(4)The debt settlement officer shall determine in the case of each debt shown in the application made by the debtor or his creditor under Section 8 or in the statement furnished by the creditor under Section 13, other than a debt declared non-genuine or unenforceable, the principle amount originally advanced, the amount paid by the debtor towards the principal or interest or both and the interest at the rate of six per cent per annum from the date the principal amount was advanced to the 22nd day of August, 1975, however, that in calculating the interest, the payments made by the debtor from time to time shall first be adjusted against the interest due on the date of payment and then towards the principal and onwards interest shall be calculated on the principal amount thus remaining outstanding.(5)Where the debtor is found to have repaid to the creditor an amount equal to or exceeding, double the principal amount, or the debtor on being apprised of such findings pays an amount which makes the total repayment equal to double the amount of principal, the debt settlement officer shall declare the debt as fully discharged and thereupon the provisions of clause (c) of Section 5 shall apply to the debt. In case the amount repaid to the creditor is found to be in excess of double the principal, the debt settlement officer shall order the refund of the same to the debtor by the creditor.(6)The debt settlement officer shall estimate the annual household income of a debtor and determine, for the purposes of Section 5, his liability and capacity to repay the debts outstanding against him.(7)In the cases not falling under sub-section (5), the debt settlement officer shall, keeping in view the outstanding amount of principal and interest as determined under sub-section (4) and the payment capacity of the debtor determined under sub-section (6), as the case may be, order the payment of the amount in yearly equal instalments not exceeding seven :Provided that in no case the debtor shall be required to pay towards the principal and the interest any amount that exceeds double the principal :Provided further that where the amount of yearly instalment in respect of all the debts exceeds the paying capacity of the debtor, the debts shall be proportionately reduced so as to make the yearly instalment equal to the paying capacity and on payment of the instalments so determined, the debt or debts shall stand fully discharged.
