Borrower

SARFAESI Act, 2002 — Section 2(f)

Under SARFAESI, a person or entity that has obtained credit facilities from a secured creditor and against whom a security interest has been created. Includes guarantors in respect of the secured debt.

In practice, who counts as a borrower under Section 2(f) of the SARFAESI Act, 2002 decides who can be pursued and who can fight back. The definition covers not only the person or entity that took the credit facility against which a security interest was created, but also the guarantors of the secured debt, which is why a bank can move under SARFAESI against a guarantor's mortgaged property, not just the principal debtor's. This breadth matters across the recovery lifecycle: the Section 13(2) demand notice must be served on the right borrowers, including guarantors, and any of them, as a borrower, can invoke Section 17 to challenge the enforcement before the DRT. Mis-identifying the borrowers, omitting a guarantor from the notice, or proceeding against someone outside the definition can vitiate enforcement and invite objections. Borrowers and guarantors, for their part, scrutinise whether they were properly served. Well-advised creditors confirm every borrower and guarantor is correctly named and noticed before enforcing.