Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to interfere with the government and RBI's (Reserve Bank of India) loan moratorium policy, and declined to extend the six months loan moratorium period.
A bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan today heard a batch of pleas by various respective parties including trade associations, real estate and power sectors, which sought an extension of loan moratorium and other reliefs in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Hearing the arguments, Supreme Court which had reserved its verdict on December 17, pronounced fresh judgement on the loan moratorium case stating that waiver of complete interest is not possible as it affects depositors.
Justice MR Shah while reading out judgement in Supreme Court "said we have heard the respective parties in the case. It is neither in the domain of scope nor judicial review. Waiver of complete interest is not possible because they have to pay interest to depositors like account holders and pensioners."
"Court won't debate academic matters of trade and commerce. Not for us to decide if public policy could have been better. The government has its own constraint to handle the issue. No writ of mandamus can be issued in the case. Centre can decide on it," Shah said.
Justice M R Shah further noted that various steps have been taken by RBI, Centre; can't say they didn't address issues of borrowers.
Th apex court on November 27 last year had asked the central government to ensure that all steps be taken to implement its decision to forego interest on eight specified categories of loans paid up to Rs 2 crore.