Plea in SC seeks relief to loan borrowers hit by lockdowns
May 11, 2021
New Delhi [India], May 11 : A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been filed before the Supreme Court on Tuesday seeking a direction to the Union of India (UOI) to take effective and remedial measures to address the financial stress and hardships being faced by the loan borrowers of the country during COVID-induced lockdowns.
The plea was filed in the Apex court by lawyer Vishal Tiwari.
The petition sought direction to the UOI to permit all the lending (financial) institutions to grant interest free moratorium period for term loan and defer the payment of loan installments for a period of six months or till the COVID-19 normalises.
Tiwari also sought that the Top Court should direct the UOI that no account shall be declared as Non-Performing Asset (NPA) for a period of six months.
Tiwari, in his PIL, said that during the second COVID-19 wave, it is required that government should take every possible measure to keep the living of the citizens comfortable and easy.
"Their financial burden should be decreased and citizens shall not loose their dignity. Financial policies are made by the government but the question of survival is above financial policies right now. The population of our nation shall survive with dignity and without any stress," read the petition.
"Since the emergence of COVID-19 in India, the country has witnessed numerous havocs in the form of medical emergency and economic distress due to the subsequent lockdowns, the plea added.
The petition further read that there is a big part of our population which earn daily in order to eat their next meal. Their survival depends upon the daily earning. Daily wage workers, labourers, tea vendors, cart pullers, and even professionals like lawyers depend on the daily earning. Lockdowns have paused everything.
