SC slams Centre on lockdown, loan moratorium

The Supreme asked the Centre to file a reply and make its stand clear on giving moratorium on charging interest on loan as well as interest-on-interest during moratorium period declared during coronavirus pandemic.

While hearing a petition seeking a direction for waiver of interest on the loan repayment during the moratorium period, the Apex Court observed that the government is hiding behind the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and why it has still not filed its reply.

“You cannot be interested only in business and not about sufferings of people,” said a bench of the Apex Court, headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan and fixed the matter for further hearing on September 1.

The Apex Court observed that the matter has been hanging for a long time.
“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,” the bench said.

A petition has also been filed in the Supreme Court seeking directions to all the banks to extend the moratorium period till December 31 to ensure helping the borrowers in deferring their EMI payment on term loans.

In June, the Supreme Court pulled up the Central government and asked it to step up and take a stand over the issue related to charging interest on EMIs during the six month moratorium period granted in view of COVID-19 pandemic.