Kochi, March 26 The Kerala High Court on Wednesday expressed its displeasure over the Central government's stand to not waive loans taken by the victims of the Wayanad landslide.
A devastating landslide struck four villages of Wayanad on July 30 last year, leaving 254 people dead and causing huge destruction of property.
A division bench of Justices A.K. Jayasankaran Nambiar and Justice S. Easwaran S. orally observed that the Centre has, on many occasions, waived loans, and it cannot claim to be powerless when it comes to the affected population of Wayanad.
"Who takes into account the plight of the debtors?... You have waived the agricultural loans during 2008-09. So, therefore, it is not as though you are powerless on waivers. Suppose the entire agricultural land is taken away by the landslide..." the judges orally said.
The Court made this observation while hearing cases related to the rehabilitation of landslide-hit Wayanad.
Incidentally, the Court had earlier asked the State Level Banker’s Committee (SLBC) to not take any coercive steps against any landslide victim who has defaulted on bank loans, till the matter of loan waiver is decided by the Central government.
Additional Solicitor General A.R.L. Sundaresan, appearing for the Centre, told the court that the Centre has approved the recommendation of the SLBC to give a year's moratorium on the loans taken by the affected persons.
He also added that interest will accrue on these loans during the period of moratorium.
But when the bench expressed its displeasure with the decision, the ASG informed that the decision was taken unanimously in the meeting, in the presence of the Kerala Chief Minister.
He also brought to the attention that this was the same policy taken when the Covid pandemic hit the state.
At this, Justice Nambiar said: "The Central government cannot cite an antecedent of unreasonableness to justify a subsequent unreasonableness. Somebody has to get in touch with the reality of the situation"
The ASG then said that the authorities had taken into consideration all kind of loans, namely MSME, agricultural, housing, and commercial loans independently and only thereafter decided the benefit to be given.
Finally, the court asked the Centre to file an affidavit delineating the proposal made by the SLBC, the proposals accepted by the Central government, and the decision of the Central government regarding loan waivers.
The court was also informed that till now, Rs 529.50 crore worth of interest-free loans have sanctioned by the Centre for rehabilitation purposes and the cut-off date for utilisation of those funds has been moved from March 31 to December 31, 2025.
The court, posting the case for further hearing on April 9, directed the state Finance Department to credit the money to the respective implementing agencies for each project, with a rider that the funds so credited shall be used only for the project specified therein.
The department should subsequently issue a utilisation certificate to the Centre.
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