New Delhi, April 5 The Supreme Court has intervened in a case where a man's credit score remained "negative" for years, despite having no outstanding loans or payment defaults.
A bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and KV Viswanathan heard a petition filed by Rajendra Singh Panwar, a resident of Uttarakhand, who claimed that his CIBIL score had been negative since 2020, despite having no loans or defaults.
A CIBIL score is a 3-digit numerical summary of a person's credit history, indicating their creditworthiness.
In his petition, Panwar stated that his credit profile showed a negative score, which prevented him from accessing financial services.
Panwar argued that two other individuals with the same name had been issued the same PAN number, and their payment defaults were allegedly appearing in his CIBIL records.
Despite obtaining a new PAN, his high-risk score persisted due to the connection between the new and old PANs.
The top court then sought responses from major banks, including SBI and PNB, asking them to clarify whether Panwar had any outstanding loans or defaults.
In an affidavit filed in the apex court, Punjab National Bank (PNB) informed that it had not reported any default against Panwar, and that records showed no adverse credit information.
The State Bank of India (SBI) told the court that its reporting to CIBIL was limited to facilities actually availed by the petitioner, and was linked to his updated PAN details.
CIBIL then informed the court that Panwar's records had now been corrected in light of the clarifications.
