The Supreme Court has reprimanded the Centre regarding its inaction, and has also asked to clarify its stand on the waiver of interest for deferred payments of instalments of loans during the moratorium period announced by the RBI.
The SC has taken to rather sharp words with the Centre, saying, “You cannot be interested only in business and not about sufferings of people.”
Supreme Court Reprimands The Centre: 1 September Deadline For Clarifying Stand On Interest Waiver
The Supreme Court has given the Government a time of 1 week to clarify its stand on this issue. The SC was ruling on a petition that asked for cancellation of interest on loan repayment in the moratorium period. The petitioners stated that the interest causes hardships, hindrances and objection in right to life that is guaranteed by the constitution.
As we all know, the moratorium period was announced by the RBI during the nationwide lockdown imposed due to the Coronavirus pandemic. However, the RBI also informed the court earlier that there should not be any interest waiving during the moratorium on term loan repayment as this will affect the financial health and stability of banks.
The court said that the centre did not clarify its stand despite having “ample powers” to waiver the interest under the Disaster Management Act.
Centre Is Responsible As It Put Entire Country Under Lockdown
The Centre has been hiding behind the RBI, according to the Supreme Court. And when the Centre said that waiving the interest would impact businesses and banks, the Supreme Court was quick to point out that this had happened because the Centre had locked down the entire country.
Justice Ashok Bhushan said, “The problem has been created by your (centre’s) lockdown. This is also not the time to consider about the business. The plight of people has to be considered also. You have to tell us your stand on two things: disaster management act and if the interest on interest will be accounted for.”
The Centre has been given a deadline of September 1 to clarify their stand on interest waiver on loan repayment.
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