Supreme Court Turns Down Subramanian Swamy's Plea To Frame Guidelines To Deal With Rising NPAs; Gives Him Liberty To Approach RBI

The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to entertain a prayer made by BJP MP Subramanian Swamy for the the Court to constitute a expert committee for laying down guidelines to address the issue relating to the rising Non-Performing Assets.

A bench comprising Justices DY Chandrachud, Vikram Nath and BV Nagarathna stated it was a domain of core policy and hence the Court cannot frame guidelines in that regard. While declining to exercise jurisdiction under Article 32, the bench however stated that Swamy will be at liberty to submit a representation before the Reserve Bank of India seeking modification in the existing guidelines to address the issue of rising NPAs and also the specific issue relating to grant of loans against shares.

"How do we frame guidelines. It is the domain of the legislature", Justice Chandrachud told Dr.Swamy, who was appearing in person, as the matter was taken.

Dr.Swamy replied that the Court can constitute an expert committee, as it has done in certain other cases, to get inputs for laying down guidelines.

At this point, Justice Vikram Nath pointed out that guidelines framed by the Reserve Bank of India are already in place.

"These are matters of policy. We can't issue guidelines for framing of committee", Justice Chandrachud added.

The bench disposed of the writ petition with the following observations in the order.

"Dr Swamy submits that it's appropriate for this court to constitute expert committee so that necessary inputs are available to frame guidelines on NPA & issue pertaining to grant of loan. The relief sought are core issues of policy that can be only framed by the RBI.  The matter may not be amenable to judicially manageable standards as the Court may be treading into the domain of policy.Since the matter pertains to RBI, we leave it open to the petitioner to make representations to the RBI so that the extant guidelines can be duly modified taking into account the issues raised by the petitioner. We are not inclined to entertain the petition. The Writ Petition is disposed of".

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