The Supreme Court has criticized banks for subjecting small loan borrowers to 'borderline harassment' while being 'casual' in sanctioning large loans to bigger entities.
A bench of justices Ahsanuddin Amanullah and R Mahadevan observed that banks reserve stringent scrutiny for individuals seeking small loans, while large-value loans are sanctioned with inadequate assessment of repayment capacity.
The court urged India's largest lender, State Bank of India (SBI), to revisit its policies and make the loan process 'easier and fairer' for ordinary citizens and those belonging to weaker economic sections.
The bench also suggested redesigning lending and recovery policies to benefit those at the lowest end of the economic spectrum.
The observations came during the hearing of a dispute involving a company that had obtained a loan of ₹8.09 crore from SBI in 2019 but defaulted almost immediately.
