Panipat/New Delhi, Nov 16
The Central Information Commission has directed the Reserve Bank of India to reveal the names and other details of the top 100 industrialists of the country, who have defaulted on loans from public sector banks.

The Commission also asked the RBI to upload the details on its website by December 31. The information will be updated every year as mandated by section four of the Right to Information Act, ruled the CIC, which overruled objections raised by the RBI.

The RBI had refused to make the information public and maintained that the information was held by it in a fiduciary capacity and that disclosing the information would adversely affect the economic interest of the state.

The information on defaulters received from banks are of a confidential nature and held by the RBI in a fiduciary capacity, had held the central bank while turning down the application of P P Kapoor from Panipat. But the CIC overruled the objection and said that such an exemption would not come in the way of upholding public interest.

Significantly, the RBI website puts the Non Performing Assets (NPS) or ‘bad loans’ unlikely to be recovered at a staggering Rs 113,000 crore. Around 40 per cent of the NPS of the public sector banks and the nationalised banks relate to the Non Priority Sector and just about 20 per cent to Agriculture.

Kapoor, an RTI activist, had filed the application in August last year under the RTI Act, seeking details of the top 100 industrialists of the country who had obtained huge loans from nationalised banks but had failed to repay. He had also sought details of the action taken by the banks to recover the amount.

On RBI’s refusal to part with the information, Kapoor filed an appeal before the CIC in October this year. The CIC heard both Kapoor and the RBI’s representative on November 8 and perused all relevant documents before reserving the ruling. An elated Kapoor said while there is a lot of talk about bringing back the money stashed away in foreign banks, he decided to obtain details of the defaulters.

(With inputs from Agencies)