A plea has been filed in the Apex Court seeking directions to all the banks to extend the moratorium period till Dec 31 to ensure helping the borrowers in deferring their EMI payment on term loans.

On Friday, the plea, filed by lawyer Vishal Tiwari, sought directions, till the Court reopens, to all the banks to adhere to extend the moratorium period for lawyers/ service sector, transport & tourist industry, including drivers & other covered under these sectors & defer their EMI payment on term loans.

The plea, which is likely to come up for hearing before the Supreme Court within a week, sought directions that the respondents, Union of India & others, shall have to ensure that the lending institutions shall not use any kind of illegal, violent, threatening, & harassing methods against borrowers for the recovery loan installments.

It also sought that in case, such acts are committed by the lending Institutions then, strict action shall be taken against them in accordance with the law.

The petition stated, "The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in India has brought a drastic financial difficulty along with the health disaster that is going on in this country. Various people have lost jobs during this situation of biological emergency & various professionals & others have gone through real financial hardship".

"Due to the financial difficulties, it has become a struggling issue for many people to pay off monthly loan installments as there is lesser or nil income of the borrowers & legal professionals, due to the closure of the physical hearing in various Courts of the country including the Supreme Court," the plea added.

It said that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had initially, in its notification had on March 27, granted some relief of suspension of monthly loan installment for a period of three months & on May 23, another extension of relief for three months till Aug 31, 2020, was brought.

However, the closure of the Court as per the lockdown notification till Aug 31, 2020, without any physical hearing had brought a lot of difficulty for many, the petition said.

Also, no relief or any financial aid in the shape of loan has been given by the Govt to the lawyers/service sector, so that they could recover from this financial crisis, Tiwari said in the 35-page plea. 

Source Link

Picture Source :