The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) told the Supreme Court on Wednesday it has an internal mechanism to examine an employee's conduct and the averments made by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy in his plea seeking a probe into the alleged role of its officials in various banking scams are "fallacious and non-substantiated".
The RBI was responding to Swamy’s petition on the need for a CBI probe into the role of the Central bank's top officials in approving big loans, which later turned into default.
Seeking dismissal of Swamy's plea, the RBI said the petitioner has no locus standi to file the petition and it is "riddled" with factual and legal inaccuracies.
"In this regard, it is submitted that the averments made by the Petitioners trying to link the scams to the RBI Officials is fallacious and non-substantiated in the absence of any prima facie evidence produced by the Petitioners. "It is submitted that the RBI has an internal mechanism / framework to examine an employee's conduct if there are any specific allegations, or prima facie evidence with respect to his actions or omissions.
The Petitioners have not presented any evidence or specific allegation in this regard and have merely made vague and ambiguous wild allegations against the entire institution of the answering Respondent," the RBI said in an affidavit filed in the top court.
"It is for the investigating agencies to conduct investigations as per the laid down procedures and applicable law. Most of the scams referred in the present PIL are already under investigation by the CBI & ED. It is not for the Petitioners to direct the course of investigations and decide the aspects which are to be pursued by the law enforcement agencies. The answering Respondent herein seeks leave of this Court," said RBI. Swamy in his petition listed the big loan defaults and frauds probed by CBI and ED, where RBI Directors or top officials of RBI were part of the decision making of approval of such loans.
In his petition, Swamy pointed out that only cases were registered against bank officials and not RBI officials who actually approved such huge loans, which later turned as defaulted.
Swamy has listed various bank scams showing involvement of RBI officials in approving big loan defaults like Kingfisher, Bank of Maharashtra and Yes Bank, where only bank officials are only charged leaving the concerned RBI official, part of the loan approving process.
During the hearing on Wednesday, a bench of Justices BR Gavai and Vikram Nath granted three weeks to Swamy to file his rejoinder to the affidavit.