In Brief
The Supreme Court considered consolidated writ petitions from industrial associations, real estate bodies, and other sectors challenging RBI's Covid-19 relief notifications that charged interest during the moratorium period (March–August 2020). While dismissing pleas for total interest waiver, extended moratorium, and sector-specific packages as matters of economic policy beyond judicial review, the Court held that compound interest/penal interest charged during the moratorium period was unjustified. Since the Government had deferred instalment payments, non-payment could not constitute willful default warranting penal interest. The Court directed that no penal/compound interest be levied during moratorium and that amounts already recovered be refunded and adjusted. The Court also upheld the Government's and NDMA's relief measures as adequate, rejecting contentions that the Disaster Management Act required mandatory loan relief.
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