If your home is being auctioned by a bank under the SARFAESI Act, 2002, you must arrange and tender the full dues BEFORE the bank publishes the public auction notice. Once that notice is published, your statutory right of redemption is gone. You can still try to settle, but you can no longer demand redemption as a matter of right.
Exact deadline: Pay or tender the entire outstanding amount before the date the bank publishes the public auction notice (or invites quotations, tender, or private treaty). This is the cut-off under Section 13(8) of the SARFAESI Act after its 2016 amendment, confirmed by the Supreme Court in M. Rajendran v. KPK Oils, 2025 INSC 1137.
Short on time? Jump to “Where the redemption window closes” below, find which stage your auction is at, and act today.
SARFAESI moves in fixed stages. The right of redemption now closes earlier than most borrowers think. Track your stage:
So the deadline to redeem as of right is the moment just before publication of the auction notice, not the later sale-certificate stage.
For years, borrowers believed they could redeem any time before the sale was completed by registration of the sale certificate. That was the pre-2016 reading of Section 13(8).
Parliament amended Section 13(8) in 2016. The amended text says the right of redemption ends “before the date of publication of notice” for public auction (or for inviting quotations, tender, or private treaty). The old “before the sale is completed” understanding no longer applies to the post-2016 statute.
The Supreme Court settled this in M. Rajendran & Ors. v. M/s KPK Oils and Proteins India Pvt. Ltd. & Ors., 2025 INSC 1137, decided on 22 September 2025 by Justice J.B. Pardiwala. It followed and applied Celir LLP v. Bafna Motors (Mumbai) Pvt. Ltd., (2024) 2 SCC 1. The court held that after 2016 the window shuts at publication of the auction notice.
Ramesh Verma defaulted on a ₹40 lakh loan against his flat in Lucknow. The bank issued a Section 13(2) demand notice, then took symbolic possession under Section 13(4).
Ramesh assumed he had until the sale certificate was registered to clear his dues. He was arranging funds when the bank published the Rule 8 auction notice in a newspaper.
After publication, Ramesh offered the full ₹40 lakh plus costs. Under M. Rajendran (2025 INSC 1137), the bank was not bound to accept it as redemption, because his right under Section 13(8) had already ended at publication. He could only request a discretionary settlement.
Lesson: had Ramesh tendered the full amount even one day before the notice was published, the bank would have been bound to release the flat.
The The RTI Playbook explains how to use RTI and right-to-information tools to extract the bank's records and dues statement when it stonewalls you.
Not as a right. After the 2016 amendment to Section 13(8), confirmed in M. Rajendran v. KPK Oils (2025 INSC 1137), the statutory right of redemption ends before the auction notice is published. You may still ask the bank for a settlement, but the bank is not bound to accept it as redemption.
It ends before the date the bank publishes the notice for public auction, or for inviting quotations, tender, or private treaty. This is the post-2016 position under Section 13(8), as held in M. Rajendran (2025 INSC 1137) following Celir LLP v. Bafna Motors, (2024) 2 SCC 1.
Yes, that was the pre-2016 understanding of Section 13(8). It is now incorrect for the post-2016 statute. After the 2016 amendment, the cut-off shifted earlier, to before publication of the auction notice. The Supreme Court confirmed this in M. Rajendran (2025 INSC 1137).
No. Redemption requires tendering the entire outstanding amount, including interest and recovery costs, not a part payment. A partial offer does not stop the auction or revive your right of redemption.
If you tender the full dues before the auction notice is published and the bank wrongly refuses, that refusal can be challenged. File a Section 17 application before the Debts Recovery Tribunal within 45 days and place your tender on record as evidence.
You can challenge procedural breaches, such as a defective Rule 8 sale notice or a flawed Rule 9 e-auction, before the DRT. See when a SARFAESI auction can be set aside for a Rule 9 timeline breach. This is separate from the redemption right under Section 13(8).
The Debts Recovery Tribunal (DRT) hears a borrower's application under Section 17 of the SARFAESI Act. You must file within 45 days of the measure you are challenging. You can use the AI RTI drafter to first extract the bank's records and dues statement.