A division bench of the Gujarat high court on Monday issued notices to the State Bank of India (SBI), Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Union government in the matter of giving some farmers the benefit of agricultural loan waiver.
A division bench of the Gujarat high court on Monday issued notices to the State Bank of India (SBI), Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Union government in the matter of giving some farmers the benefit of agricultural loan waiver.
A group of farmers from Idar taluka of Sabarkantha district had approached the high court because the local SBI branch had issued them notices for payment of their loan with interest. In their petition, the farmers had alleged that the bank was charging them high interest despite the fact that they were eligible for loan waiver under a scheme for farmers introduced by the Centre in 2008. The petitioner farmers had taken agricultural loan from2004 to 2007.
Counsel for the farmers, Amit P Patel, told the division bench comprising chief justice SJ Mukhopadhaya and justice JB Pardiwala that the farmers were given agricultural term-loan and crop loan by the SBI. Further, they had been paying interest and installment amount to the bank regularly, Patel said.
The lawyer further said that, in 2008, the central government had introduced the benefit of loan waiver for agriculturists in the matter of repayment of loans. The petitioner farmers were under the bona fide impression that they will also get the benefit of loan waiver under the said scheme. They had, therefore, stopped repayments as they were waiting for the benefit to be given to them, the farmers’ lawyer said.
However, two years later, the petitioners came to know that the bank and the government were not ready and willing to give them the benefit either on the principal amount or the interest, the lawyer said. After that, the petitioners had again started repayment of loan with interest, he added.
The petitioner’s counsel further said that the farmers were paying both the interest and the installment as the SBI had treated their accounts as NPAs (non-performing assets) and not given them the benefit of the loan waiver scheme.
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