Govt to respond in plea related to jewel loan waiver

A Coimbatore based woman has approached the Madras High Court for an injunction restraining the State government from considering the gross weight of jewels by ignoring the stones’ weight while appraising jewels under the jewel loan waiver scheme.

When the matter came before Justice VM Velumani, the judge passed an interim stay on the jewel auction proceedings initiated by the Coimbatore City Cooperative Bank against the petitioner, M Tamilselvi. The petitioner also wanted to stall the auction proceedings initiated by the bank on March 7 against her for not retrieving the jewels on time.

The petitioner had pledged one gold ‘haram’ and a ring, both weighing 44 grams.

“When I approached the bank for the gold loan waiver scheme, officials said the jewels, which weigh up to 40 grams, only could be considered for waiver scheme.My ring has a stone that weighs about eight grams. Therefore, the net weight is only 38 grams (gold) and the gross weight is 44 grams,” advocate Murali Mohan appearing for the petitioner submitted.

She further said while issuing the loan, the bank had considered only the net weight and did not take the stone’s weight into account. “Therefore, it should consider only the gold’s weight which is 38 grams. As my jewels have 38 grams of gold, I am duly entitled to the waiver,” the petitioner added.

On recording the submissions, the judge stayed the auction proceeding and directed the State to file a counter within a week.