Bank takes NPA too seriously, gets notice from NHRC

Central Bank of India names girl and her father as defaulters over non-payment of education loan

GN Bureau | March 3, 2016


#NHRC   #Central Bank of India  


Unable to pay up her education loan, a girl in Tamil Nadu had to face serious embarrassment at the hands of a public sector bank which named the beneficiary and her father as defaulters. Taking cognizance of the matter, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued a show cause notice to the chairman of Central Bank of India asking why it should not recommend monetary relief of Rs 1 lakh to the beneficiary for being insulted.

Apparently, the Manjoor branch of the bank in the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu displayed the girl as well as her father’s photographs captioning them wrongly as ‘missing’ and ‘defaulters’. Threatening telephonic calls were also made to her ailing father.

The commission’s show cause notice follows the admittance of error by the bank which has been given six weeks’ time to respond. In its report submitted to NHRC, the bank says that due to erroneous data entry in the system the victim’s loan account was wrongly classified as ‘non-performing asset’ (NPA). The bank’s move was against the advice of ministry of finance to all banks which says that names and photographs of students, who are unable to repay education loan or where there is a delay in the repayment, should not be published.

Justice D. Murugesan, member, NHRC, while issuing the show cause notice, observed that the display of photographs of the victim and her father on the notice board was a violation of their right to live with dignity, which is recognized as dereliction of article 21 of the constitution as well as human rights.

The victim had taken an education loan for Rs 2 lakh from the Manjoor branch of Central Bank of India to pursue her B.E. degree course. She completed the course in 2013 and according to the model IVA scheme, the first repayment had to commence from July, 2014 as per the moratorium. The moratorium included study period and a year after that to start the process of repaying the loan in 120 installments.  She had paid half of the loan amount in the first month itself after the moratorium. She said that the coercive methods adopted by the bank that too against the established norms of education loan repayment amounted to violation of human rights. It is also alleged that her ailing father had died due to shock after receiving threatening telephone calls from the bank.
 

Comments

 

Other News

“I wrote ‘Survival at Stake’ to provide food for thought about solutions”

Survival at Stake: How Our Treatment of Animals Is Key to Human Existence By Poorva Joshipura HarperCollins, 328 pages, Rs 499 With science now recognising animal consciousness, intelligence, emotion, and even morality, there must rise an awareness of

‘Bon Voyage’ through the Arctic: Exploring new horizons for India

India`s tryst with trade through the Arctic regions, including the Northern Sea Routes (NSR), has become an impact-making endeavor recently. The Arctic of yore is now a pivot – point of geopolitics, of climate change discussions, and for economic opportunities; 40% of oil and gas reserves said to be

Demystifying Contemporary Finance Theory and other lessons in investment

Investing Decoded: Simple Path To Building A Portfolio In Millions By Anirudh Rathore Penguin India, 320 pages, Rs 499

Deepfake: India to prepare four-point action plan

Deepfake has emerged as a serious threat to democracy and social institutions across the world. Propagation of deepfake content via social media platforms has aggravated this challenge. Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has, from time to time, advised social media in

Mumbai traffic: Let’s use some simple math

Two level of roads not enough, BMC to have triple traffic jams through underground junctions There is no shortage of short-sighted traffic experts who believe that creating more vertical space (either above or below the level) in already overcrowded and congested cities will be cou

Seizures worth Rs. 1,760 crore reported in five poll-bound states

The Election Commission of India’s persistent efforts have led to a significant and exponential increase in seizures in the five poll-going states of Mizoram, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Telangana. Seizures over Rs 1,760 crore have been reported in these five states since the announce

Visionary Talk: Amitabh Gupta, Pune Police Commissioner with Kailashnath Adhikari, MD, Governance Now


Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter