Will amend law to rein in microfinance companies: CM Siddaramaiah
Bengaluru, Jan 25 (PTI): Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday said the state government would amend the existing laws related to money lending business and introduce new legislation to protect the interest of the genuine borrowers.
In the wake public outrage against the alleged harassment by micro-finance companies to recover money from borrowers, Siddaramaiah chaired an emergency meeting with his deputy D K Shivakumar, Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda, Home Minister G Parameshwara, Law Minister H K Patil, senior government and top police officials.
Representatives of the microfinance companies association, regional officers of the Reserve Bank of India and NABARD officials were also present.
Later, briefing reporters, the CM said he took the opinion of the microfinance companies as well as the RBI officials.
"After taking their view, we told them that we won't say not to give loan or do not recover money from borrowers but while recovering money you should not torture and harass people," Siddaramaiah said.
While recovering money, RBI guidelines should be followed by the micro-finance institutions. The central bank should also monitor the violations of these guidelines, he added.
"We are going to amend the existing laws and also bring new legislation to protect the interest of the genuine borrowers of the micro finance institution and other private money lenders," he added.
The Chief Minister added he told the companies not to charge interest more than the prescribed rules.
"After 5 PM, no one should go for recovering money. We have opposed outsourcing the recovery work," he said.
"What happens is, it is outsourced and rowdies are roped in. This should not be done. We will take stringent action against violation of rules for recovering money,” Siddaramaiah warned.
The meeting was convened after many people allegedly died by suicide, families fled their homes and women staged protests against the harassemnet by microfinance companies across the state.
The menace is more prevalent in the rural areas.
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Wangchuk not given videos which formed basis of his detention: Wife to SC
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New Delhi (PTI): Climate activist Sonam Wangchuk's wife Gitanjali J Angmo alleged in the Supreme Court on Thursday that four videos which formed the basis of her husband's detention were not shown to him and only the thumbnails on pen drive were displayed.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing in the court for Angmo, told a bench of justices Aravind Kumar and Prasanna B Varale that not supplying the videos violated Wangchuk's right to effective representation before the advisory board as well as the government.
"It is now alleged by the State that that DIG came with a laptop and shown four videos. The laptop was provided to detenue on October 5, 2025, but those four vidoes were not there.
"Let us assume they showed it to be, that is not the requirement of law. The requirement is to give it to me. They have to provide the document, I don't have to ask. It is there constitutional duty to supply. We have said that time and again that the four was never supplied," Sibal said.
Another lawyer assisting Sibal informed the court that the pen drive was inserted in the laptop before Wangchuk and he only saw the thumbnails.
"The videos were not actually played. None of the thumbnails were actually clicked," the lawyer said.
Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj submitted that there is a video in which the conversation with the DIG and detenue will show everything.
The top court said it see the relevant video recordings, including a 40-minute video of the interaction between police officials and the detenue.
The matter is now posted for hearing on February 23.
On Monday, the apex court had questioned the Centre about the transcripts of videos submitted by it against Wangchuk and said the translations should be precise in the age of artificial intelligence.
It had told Nataraj that it wanted actual transcripts of Wangchuk's statements from the government after Sibal submitted that some of the words attributed to the activist were never said by him.
The top court was hearing a habeas corpus petition filed by Wangchuk's wife, Gitanjali Angmo, seeking a declaration that his detention under the National Security Act (NSA), 1980, is illegal.
The NSA empowers the Centre and the states to detain individuals to prevent them from acting in a manner "prejudicial to the defence of India."
The maximum detention period is 12 months, though it can be revoked earlier. Angmo said the violence in Leh on September 24 last year cannot be attributed in any manner to the actions or statements of Wangchuk.
Wangchuk himself condemned the violence through his social media handles and categorically said it would lead to the failure of Ladakh's "tapasya" and its peaceful pursuit of five years, Angmo said, adding that it was the saddest day of his life.
