RBI refuses to disclose list of loan defaulters

New Delhi : The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has refused to make public the list of loan defaulters with public sector banks despite an order of the Supreme Court in 2015 to make this information public. The case relates to an RTI application filed by activist Subhash Agrawal who had sought to know the list of people who had defaulted in the loan of

According to the government, the gross non-performing assets (NPA) of the public sector banks stood at Rs 6.06 lakh crore as on December 31, 2016.

The RBI had denied the information citing the clauses of economic interests of the state, the commercial confidence and the information held in fiduciary capacity. Still, the Bankers' Bank cited same arguments to deny information to Agrawal, who escalated the matter to the CIC.

During the hearing, the RBI also said the Supreme Court is hearing a matter in which reports have been sought in a sealed envelop and hence any decision should be avoided.

The bench, comprising Information Commissioners Manjula Prasher and Sudhir Bhargava, did not accept Agarwal's plea that a case was already decided by the Supreme Court in which clear directives have been given and is a law of land, and not a pending case.

"The RBI has a statutory duty to uphold the interest of the public at large, the depositors, the country's economy and the banking sector," it had said while directing the RBI to disclose the list of defaulters.

"The baseless and unsubstantiated argument of the RBI that the disclosure would hurt the economic interest of the country is totally misconceived," the court had said.

The apex court had said that the facts reveal that banks were trying to cover up their underhand actions, they are even more liable to be subjected to public scrutiny.

Rejecting these arguments, the apex court had ordered the disclosure of information relating to loan default and other such details sought by various applicants. Some of these arguments, rejected by the Supreme Court, were put by the RBI before the CIC during the hearing of Agrawal's case.