The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the government to chalk out a proposal for appointing a committee to resolve issues pertaining to bad loans and huge write-offs by public sector banks.
A Bench of Chief Justice of India T S Thakur asked the Union Government and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to respond to various issues raised by senior advocate Prashant Bhushan of the Centre for Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the matter. The court also allowed Indian Banks’ Association, another respondent, to file a response. The apex court was hearing a PIL petition filed in 2003 by the CPIL against Hudco, which has since been widened to include RBI, banks and other financial institutions. The matter was adjourned to July 19.
After being briefed by Bhushan, Chief Justice of India said that he does not possess expertise in financial issues and thus a committee is required to look into the matter.
The Bench asked the government not to treat the suggestions ‘adversarial’. “Something is missing (in the present system). That is why it is not working. We are going through suggestions to reform the system and prevent huge write-offs,” added Thakur.
As Parliament session is in progress, Solicitor-General Ranjit Kumar sought some time from the court and responded that amendments were in the offing, referring to the new bankruptcy law, which would be implemented soon.
