The Reserve Bank of India has submitted to the Supreme Court a list of defaulters who have failed to repay banks loans over and above the sum of Rs 500 crore which is either written off as "bad debt" by the bank or is restructured so as to be recovered at a later stage.
The information has been submitted to Court in a sealed cover as the RBI said that the details available with it cannot be disclosed in public domain. It said, "Disclosing the details of accounts where defaults have been found irrespective of the reasons thereof, may have adverse impact for the business and in a way may accentuate the failure of business rather than nursing it back to health."
The affidavit by RBI Assistant General Manager VK Arya came in response to a Court order issued on February 16 in a PIl when the Court examined a case relating to issue of bad loans by Haryana Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO).
Several irregularities were cited by NGO Centre for Public Interest litigation pointing out how loans were issued to companies which were willful defaulters.
The apex bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) TS Thakur expressed concern on the issue and decided to make RBI a party and seek information on the details of bad loans issued by banks above Rs 500 crore and restructuring already done of such bad loans in the past five years.