The Supreme Court will, in August, decide whether Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) list of defaulters should be made public. Earlier in March, the RBI had submitted a list of defaulters in a sealed envelope. However, disclosing the names would have an adverse impact on business, it added. "There are a series of statues that protect us from disclosing certain information," said the RBI counsel.

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Representing the petitioner, advocate Prashant Bhushan submitted that though the list was first filed in a sealed cover, the bench had directed RBI to furnish the same in another affidavit. "Let RBI file the report and comply with the order," Bhushan submitted before a bench comprising of the Chief Justice of India JS Khehar and Justice DY Chandrachud,

In response, the bench posted the matter after four weeks. In 2015, the RBI wrote off corporate loans to the tune of Rs 40,000 crores. In 2016, the amount reached a whopping Rs. 85,000 crores from 57 borrowers.

In October, the top court had asked the RBI why names of the 57 borrowers who have defaulted on bank loans should not be made public. "Who are these people who have borrowed money and are not paying back?

Why is this not known to the public?" The bench further stated that if the bar was lowered below Rs 500 crore, then the default amount would cross over Rs 1 lakh crore.

Accordingly, the bench directed the Centre to submit empirical data on the pendency of cases for more than ten years and the list of corporate entities where the amount outstanding is in excess of Rs 500 crore.

The order came in reply to a 2003 PIL filed by the Centre for Public Interest Litigation, which brought to the top court's notice the actions of state-owned Housing and Urban Development Corporation officials who were arbitrarily granting loans for political and extraneous considerations without going in to the merit of each case.