Banking (Juris)Prudence

Indian banks have been quite fortunate that the crisis faced by the
international banking community has left them pretty unscathed—so far at any
rate. They have, perhaps, benefited from the fact that they have not strayed
too far from the basic ground rules governing the banking business. ‘Pure
banking, nothing else’ seems to have served the Indian banks, especially those
in the public sector, rather well. Mercifully, they remain relatively robust.
Even so, the contagion of the international banking crisis is still quite
virulent, and it is not as though the Indian banks are completely
immune to the serious afflictions besieging their international
counterparts. And it does not really need a seer to point out the
elementary fact—though many management pundits have done it—
that when faced with a crisis, the secret of survival lies in going back
to the basics and getting them right.

A fairly large number of new entrants to the Indian

banking system are struggling with the mind-
boggling challenges of operating in a globalized and
extremely complicated business environment in
myriad innovative ways. In the tsunami of
innovations in business process reengineering and
Author: G R K Murty
technological leapfrogging, it is understandable,
Price: Rs. 625 (PB)
Pages: 433 without being acceptable, that today’s banker
Publisher: generally, and in India in particular, is not able to give
IUP Publications
attention to the basics. He is too busy for tomes like
M L Tannan’s great book on banking law and practice, which,
decades back, used to put the career banker through the paces, but
does not, regrettably, seem to enjoy the patronage of today’s
generation of initiates into banking to the same extent. Probably, the
size and scope of the book daunt the uninitiated first-time user.

But it cannot be gainsaid that legal illiteracy would adversely impact

the efficiency of the Indian banking system. Access to new
technology and techniques of management are no substitute to a
reasonably thorough knowledge of the rules of the game.
G R K Murty’s book, Banking and The Law: A User’s Manual, seeks to
equip the Indian banker with the essentials of critically important
statutes relating to banking. In crisply written chapters, the book
gives more than a bird’s eye view of the gamut of Indian statutes
having a bearing on banking. From the time-tested and quite
wonderfully adequate Indian Contract Act to the IT Act 2000 to the
SRFAESI Act 2000, the book covers a large canvas and does so in a
lucid, succinct and convincing way.

Conscious perhaps of the soporific potential of the subject dealt

with, Murty brings the full range of his extensive experience in the
training of bank personnel into play and comes up with an eminently
readable book. The treatment of the subject throughout the book is
contemporary and laced with appropriate and relevant case law.

It is difficult, especially while essaying the subject of law, to do full

justice to both the theory and practice and make it interesting as
well. The author walks the tightrope with consummate skill. The
most distinguishing trait in his treatment of the subject is
intelligibility, that one does not have to read and re-read the text and
keep going back and forth to make sense of the subject. It is quite
easy to get the gist in one reading.

For someone looking for interesting and adequate coverage of all

statutes relevant to the modern Indian banker between the covers of
one none-too-fat and readable volume, Murty’s book is the one to
reach for.

M Hanumantha Rao
Former Deputy General Manager,
State Bank of India.