The Supreme court has today come down severely on RBI on the issue of bad debts. It has previously taken a case in suo moto basing on the news that the banks have written off 1.14 lakh crores as bad debts between 2013-2015. The bench has at that time ordered the RBI to share the names of all defaulters who owe over Rs 500 crore. As the RBI has submitted the information in a sealed cover, RBI has made several remarks that has left the RBI redfaced. The apex court has observed that while people who has taken thousands of crores are escaping through insolvency, poor farmers were driven to suicide in the name of debt.

The court has also opined that the names in the sealed covers should be made public, to which the counsel of RBI has objected that such an act would be against the regulations. Apex court has then felt that at least the amount of loans can be disclosed without revealing the names of defaulters. But RBI has not agreed even to such suggestion. It’s counsel has argued that such a revelation would affect the economy. The court has then issued notices to the Finance Ministry as well as the banks associations to come up with concrete steps regarding the issues confidentiality and recovery of bad debts, by April 26th.