Alka Verma –
Published On: October 8, 2021 at 17:32 IST
On Friday, the Supreme Court of India declined to entertain a Plea filed by running playschools.
Through the Plea, the playschools wanted to have direction for Centre and RBI to grant “interest-free moratorium period for term loans”.
Also, through the Plea the school wished that their EMI should be deferred till the corona situation subsides.
A Bench comprising Justices L Nageswara Rao and B R Gavai stated, “How can the court grant the relief you are asking for in this petition. You make a representation they will decide but don’t file petitions like this. It’s not within the realm of this court to provide what you are asking for and the relaxations you are seeking.”
However, the Bench also granted liberty to the petitioner to approach RBI through their legal representative.
“We would not like to entertain this writ petition. However, the petitioner is granted liberty to approach the RBI which may suitably decide the representation in accordance with law,” stated the Bench.
The Court gave such statements while it was dealing with a Plea filed by The Indian Council of Early Childhood Educators and Institutions (ICECEI).
In the Plea, they requested the Court to issue direction stating that the loans taken by pre and play schools should not declared non-performing assets (NPAs) due to non-payment of EMIs during the second wave.
In their Plea they also mentioned that unlike other schools, they can’t teach through online mode as the little ones are not able to understand and that’s why they are not able to earn.
Talking about the second wave of COVID the Plea stated that it had destroyed the health care and financial system.
Adding to this, the Plea also requested the Court to issue direction to the Government ordering it to allow lending institutions to issue interest-free moratorium period for term loan and allow the delay of the payment of loan instalments for a period of six months or till the situation of COVID-19 normalizes.
It should be noted here that the Plea was filed by Yash Pal Singh, who is the President of ICECEI.
The Plea was referred to the notification of RBI which was issued last year by which the relief of suspension of monthly loan installment was granted to borrowers.