RBI defies Supreme Court order, refuses to disclose list of loan defaulters

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has refused to make public the list of loan defaulters with public sector banks despite an order of the Supreme Court in 2015 to make this information public.

The case relates to an RTI application filed by activist Subhash Agrawal who had sought to know the list of people who had defaulted in the loan of Rs one crore and above.

According to the government,



gross non-performing assets (NPA) of the public sector banks stood at Rs 6.06 lakh crore as on December 31, 2016.

RBI had denied information citing clauses of economic interests of the state, the commercial confidence and information held in fiduciary capacity.

It had also cited the provisions of Section 45-E of the RBI Act, 1934 which prohibits disclosure of credit information.