Madhya Pradesh High Court: DRT Cannot Restrict or Condition Foreign Travel

The Madhya Pradesh High Court has held that the Debt Recovery Tribunal has no power to restrict a person’s right to travel abroad, nor can it impose conditions for such travel. 

Justice Pranay Verma quashed the Tribunal’s direction requiring the petitioner, ex-Director of Metalman Industries, to deposit ₹50 crore as a precondition for foreign travel, observing that such conditions effectively deprive a person of their fundamental right.

The Court reiterated that the right to travel abroad is protected under Articles 19 and 21, and any restriction must be backed by enacted law, which is absent under the 1993 Act. 

The imposed conditions were found arbitrary and unsustainable.

[Rajiv Soni v. ICICI Bank]