Loan Moratorium: Supreme Court said- complete waiver of interest is not possible, refusal to extend moratorium period

The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to interfere in the loan moratorium policy. The Supreme Court directed on the interest on interest case that no compounding or punitive interest will be charged from the borrowers for the six-month loan moratorium period from March to August 2020 and if any amount has already been taken, it can be credited back or adjusted. Will be done.

The court also refused to extend the moratorium period, rejecting the appeal of the Traders' Association and the appealing people to waive interest in the loan moratorium period, as the decision would also affect the depositors. The difference between compound interest and simple interest was charged on loans up to 2 crore. The apex court refused to interfere in the decision of the central government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) not to extend the loan moratorium beyond 31 August 2020, saying it was a policy decision. The Lone Moratorium was announced last year in the wake of the Coronavirus epidemic.

A bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan said that the apex court cannot conduct a judicial review of the Centre's fiscal policy decision unless it is malicious and arbitrary. The apex court said that it cannot interfere with the government's decision to set priorities about providing relief during an epidemic affecting the entire country.

The bench said this in its decision on the petitions filed by various industry organizations in the real estate and power sectors. Because of the epidemic, these petitions sought to extend the Lone Moratorium period and other relief measures.

The Supreme Court said that it cannot conduct judicial review of the fiscal policy decisions of the Center unless it is made wrongly or arbitrarily. In the Lone Moratorium case, the Supreme Court said that the government has the right to take economic decisions as the government has also suffered economic losses due to the epidemic.

Interest on interest case

The Supreme Court has given its verdict today on various petitions urging banks to stop the recovery of interest on the borrowers. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Reserve Bank had provided a facility to stop payment of loan installments. Banks levied interest on monthly installments of loans (EMIs) from customers availing of this facility, which was challenged in the apex court by the people who availed the loan moratorium.

Center, RBI, and Finance Ministry gave these answers in court

The Reserve Bank of India and the Ministry of Finance gave separate affidavits in the Supreme Court stating that banks, financial institutions, and non-banking financial institutions (NBFCs) would put an amount equal to the difference of compounding and simple interest in the accounts of eligible borrowers by November 5. Banks put this gap in the account of the customers till November and also informed the customers about this through SMS. The difference between compound interest and simple interest on loans up to 2 crore was returned to the borrowers' accounts by November 5.