Loan moratorium: Supreme Court to hear fresh plea for extension of scheme till year-end

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday decided to hear a fresh plea seeking extension till December last the RBI's moratorium scheme to provide the facility of deferred payments of installments of term loans to borrowers due to COVID-19 pandemic.

A bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan, in a hearing conducted through video conferencing, ordered tagging of the fresh plea filed by lawyer Vishal Tiwari with the earlier pending petition on the issue.

The Reserve Bank Of India had come out with the notification in March after the nation-wide lockdown was imposed to curb the spread of the pandemic and had given the facility of deferred payment of installments to borrowers and now, the scheme is ending on August 31.

The lawyer told the bench, which also comprised Justices R Subhash Reddy and M R Shah, that the adverse impact of the pandemic over the financial situation was still there, and hence, the moratorium scheme needed to be extended further till year-end.

Now, the plea will be heard alongside the one filed by Agra resident Gajendra Sharma which is scheduled for hearing on September one.

The apex court on August 26 had heard Sharma's plea and had observed that the Centre was 'hiding behind the RBI' and had asked it to reply within a week on the issue of interest being charged on installments which have been deferred under the central bank's scheme during the moratorium period amid COVID-19 lockdown.

The apex court had earlier asked the Centre and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to review the move to charge interest on EMIs during the moratorium period introduced under the scheme due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The top court had said there was "no merit in charging interest on interest" for deferred loan payment installments during the moratorium period announced in wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Sharma has sought a direction to declare the portion of the RBI's March 27 notification "as ultra vires to the extent it charges interest on the loan amount during the moratorium period and said that it created hardship to the petitioner being a borrower and creates hindrance and obstruction in 'right to life' guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution of India".

He has also sought a direction to the government and the RBI to provide relief in repayment of the loan by not charging interest during the moratorium period.