SC to examine disclosure of names in NPAs

The central government on Monday told the Supreme Court that anexpert committee it had appointed on non-performing assets will submitits report this month end and the court must hold its hand till then for furtherexamination of the problem which plagues the banking sector.
 
The court, however, stated that it would take up the question of disclosure of the names of the defaulters on Friday. The Centre for Public Interest Litigation has moved the court for the disclosure. Its counsel Prashant Bhushan told the bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur that the expert committee report would not be reliable as its five members are thevery people involved in reckless lending.

The actual NPA is to the tune of Rs 3 lakh crore and those which were restructured and given more time to repay is not less than Rs 10 lakh crore, counsel said.  

The Chief Justice separated the consideration of the coming report on NPAs from the demand for disclosure. The report will be examined next month. But the court asked the RBI counsel what was the difficulty in disclosing the serious defaulters’ names. Its counsel replied that the principle of confidentiality and statutory limitations must be respected.    

Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar, appearing for the government, said that that it was for the banks to disclose the names and the government was not involved in that issue.    

Prashant Bhushan submitted that last year the Supreme Court had dismissed the appeal of the RBI which claimed immunity from disclosing the names. In spite of that neither the government nor the RBI has obeyed the order of the court.  He said that the banks and the government could not raise arguments based on confidentiality and statutory limitations as the judgment had rejected each of the arguments.

The court and the general public have a right to know the names, not only under the Right to Information Act, but also when the authorities are colluding with the guilty parties to cover up the swindle of public money.