Supreme Court: In a breather to customers in the case relating to waiver of interest on loan during the moratorium period, the 3-judge bench of Ashok Bhushan*, R. Subhash Reddy and MR Shah, JJ has directed that all steps to implement the decision dated 23.10.2020 of the Government of India, Ministry of Finance be taken so that benefit to the eight categories contemplated in the affidavit can be extended.
The affidavit dated 23.10.2020, states that
“ (…) the decision taken by the Central Government for granting various reliefs for the COVID-19 pandemic for benefit of waiver of interest upto Rs.2 Crores in eight categories has been approved by the Union Cabinet in its meeting dated 21.10.2020 and Ministry of Finance has issued directions dated 23.10.2020 on the subject, which has been brought on record alongwith the affidavit.”
The eight categories are:
(i) MSME loans
(ii) Education loans
(iii) Housing loans
(iv) Consumer durable loans
(v) Credit card dues
(vi) Automobile loans
(vii) Personal loans to professionals
(viii) Consumption loans up
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted before the Court that the Central Government is fully conscious of the difficulties faced by the various sectors and the stakeholders of various sectors and the Finance Ministry, after the outbreak of COVID-19, has taken several measures of reliefs dealing with the potential problems faced by several sectors and in several spheres of all financial worlds.
It was further highlighted that in pursuance of circular dated 23.10.2020,
“… the State Bank of India has informed that as on 13.11.2020, as per provisional, unaudited information received so far from various lending institutions, such lending institutions have released ex-gratia amount of an aggregate exceeding Rs.4,300 Crores in over 13.12 Crore accounts of borrowers covered under the Scheme.”
The Court will continue to hear the matter on 02.12.2020.
[Gajendra Sharma v. Union of India, 2020 SCC OnLine SC 963, decided on 27.11.2020]
*Justice Ashok Bhushan has penned this judgment
For petitioner: Senior Advocate Rajiv Dutta
For RBI: Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, Senior Advocate V. Giri and Advocate Ramesh Babu M.R.