The High Court has granted more time for filing response to a plea by business community members seeking interest waiver on loans for certain periods since 2014 during which Kashmir saw natural calamity, disturbances and pandemic.
A division bench of Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Sanjay Dhar asked the respondents— Ministries of Home Affairs and Finance, the RBI, the J&K government and the J&K Bank— to respond till 11 August 2020 to the PIL filed by president, ‘Restaurant and Cafe Association Kashmir’ Sheikh Feroz Ahmad and president, ‘Industrial Revival and Development Forum, Kashmir’ Muhammad Muzamil Bacha.
The petitioners contend that they have filed the PIL for the benefit of persons belonging to J&K and Ladakh, who have availed of loan facilities from different banks and in the face of lock down announced by the government in the wake of COVID-19 they are not in a position to pay the instalments as also the interest.
The PIL seeks direction to the respondents for waiving the interest charged by the banks on the term loans “for the period when moratorium was granted by the banks on account of special rehabilitation and revival package for the persons affected by floods in erstwhile state of J&K as also rehabilitation package to borrowers hit by the disturbances that occurred in the state in 2016 and 2019 besides the Covid-19 aftermath”.