Lawyer files plea in SC seeking modification of March 23 moratorium judgement

A petition was filed before the Supreme Court on Tuesday by lawyer and petitioner, Vishal Tiwari, seeking a direction to allow his plea to modify its March 23, 2021, judgment and issue orders that the period of declaring any account as Non-performing Assets (NPA) shall be reckoned from the date of the judgment pronounced.

Tiwari, in his petition filed before the apex court, said that the last part of the order said, "The accounts which have been considered as standards and were not declared NPA till August 31, 2020, should not be declared NPA, till further orders. It meant that the accounts were required to be considered as standard."

Tiwari said that such an order of the Court stood as a relief for the commercial borrower, who was under serious financial hardship due to the sudden outbreak of COVID-19 and the subsequent imposition of complete lockdown by the Government of India to restrict the transmission of the virus.

Such stay order of non-imposition of NPA by the banks against the borrowers has been vacated through the judgment of March 23, 2021, and therefore the banks in accordance with the law can impose NPA of a standard account if there arises default, the petition said.

Generally in legal parlance, the standard account of a borrower can be declared as NPA if there is repayment of 90 days or more, Tiwari, in his petition stated.

Therefore, it needs to be clarified and directed by the apex court that the period of 90 days for the computation of declaration of standard account as NPA should start from the day of the judgment in this batch of petitions, Tiwari in his petition said.

In this regard, the applicant, Tiwari, herein prayed the court for clarification/modification and direction of the judgment/order of March 23, to avoid any practical or sensitive problems which may arise in the future on the issue of classifications.

The second wave of the pandemic has resulted in partial lockdown in various parts of the country, which has a serious negative impact on the financial condition of the people, Tiwari claimed in his petition.

Thereby, he sought a direction from the apex court to allow this application for clarification and modification in the judgment of March 23, and issue necessary directions that the period of declaring any account as NPA shall be reckoned from the date of the above Judgement pronounced.

( With inputs from ANI )