Kriti Agrawal
Two companies have petitioned the Supreme Court, demanding penalty for violating the Supreme Court’s Judgment dated 3rd September, 2020, which said that “Accounts which were not declared NPA till 31st August 2020 shall not be declared NPA until further orders.”
Advocate Vishal Tiwari and Advocate Abhigya filed the petitions.
The plea claimed that the contemnors be served with a notice for deliberately violating the Supreme Court’s order and directives of September 3, 2020 and that the contemnors be punished for contempt of the Apex Court.
According to the petition, the Supreme Court issued a common order in a batch of petitions on September 3, 2020, in which the Court instructed and declared that accounts that had not been declared NPA by August 31, 2020 would not be declared NPA until further orders were issued.
Following the hearing of counsel, the Court issued the order:
“The matter has been continued to September 10, 2020, at the request of Mr. Tushar Mehta, learned Solicitor General. Mr. Harish Salve, distinguished Senior Advocate, proposed that no account become NPA for at least two months. In light of the foregoing, accounts that were not declared NPA as of 31.08.2020 will not be declared NPA until further orders are issued.”
The petitioner, Aslam Trading Company, alleged that it was provided various credit facilities by the Bank from time to time in the form of financial assistance against various assets, therefore, creating a security interest in favor of the Bank. Loan payments were made on time, and his account did not become delinquent until August 31, 2020.
The Bank sent a similar notice to Tarun Polymers on April 9, 2021, requesting an amount of more than 5 crores as of March 31, 2021, inclusive of interest up to March 31, 2021.
According to the petitions, the respondents unilaterally categorized Aslam Trading Company and Tarun Polymers as NPAs on the 12th of November, 2020 and the 28th of September 2020, respectively, under Section 13 (2) of the Sarfaesi Act. However, there was no Show-cause Notice issued.