Supreme Court: The bench of Ashok Bhushan and MR Shah, JJ has refused to pass any direction in the petition seeking effective and remedial measures to redress and overcome the financial stress and hardship faced by the borrowers of the country during the second wave of Covid 19 and lockdown.
The Circular of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) dated 05.05.2021, by which the Reserve Bank of India has issued Resolution of Covid 19 related stress of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), was put before the Court in support of the petition. It was argued that the Circular does not sufficiently address the hardship of the borrowers.
The Court, however, said,
“Be that as it may, the financial relief and other measures are in the domain of the Government and essentially related to policy matter.”
It is pertinent to note that the 3-judge consisting of both the judges of the present bench, along with R. Subhash Reddy, J had, in a breather to customers in the case relating to waiver of interest on loan during the moratorium period, 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.
Read the full report on the said order here:
The Court, hence, left it to the Union of India and the Reserve Bank of India to consider and take appropriate decision in the matter.
[Vishal Tiwari v. Union of India, 2021 SCC OnLine SC 423, order dated 11.06.2021]
For Petitioner: Petitioner-in-person
For Respondent: Mr. Tushar Mehta, SG
Ms. Aishwarya Bhati, ASG
Mr. Rajat Nair, Adv.
Mr. Kanu Agrawal, Adv.
Mr. B.V. Balramdas, AOR