Relief for cancer patient’s son as SG to fund fees

New Delhi: A cancer patient, undergoing a financially draining prolonged treatment, had petitioned Delhi High Court after Canara Bank refused to provide an additional loan of Rs 10 lakh, over and above the Rs 55 lakh education loan already released, to his son to enable him to complete his master's degree in business analytics from a New York university.The bank refused citing RBI guidelines which hold that a bank cannot disburse the entire loan amount (in this case it was Rs 58 lakh) without taking 15% margin money when the loan is for studies abroad. The father, whose vocal cord was removed during the treatment, had already kept his Rohini DDA flat as collateral for availing the loan for his son, who needed to deposit the last fee tranche of Rs 10 lakh to get his degree.Justice Vikas Mahajan appointed senior advocate Nalin Kohli as amicus curiae to help resolve the financial tangle that left the cancer patient emotionally exhausted and jeopardised the prospect of his son getting the degree for which they had already spent a fortune.The father told Kohli that Rs 2 lakh was the maximum he could arrange. Kohli promised to contribute another Rs 2 lakh. But that was not enough, leaving everybody frustrated.Kohli, distraught that his first assignment as amicus curiae could not bring relief to the father and son, confided his disappointment in solicitor general Tushar Mehta when the two happened to meet in the Supreme Court corridors. No sooner had he finished narrating the family's ordeal that Mehta volunteered to fund the Rs 10 lakh that the boy, Puneet Singh, needed to collect his degree. "Mehta empathised with the family and said he understood that even arranging Rs 2 lakh was going to be a grim struggle for the cancer patient and, therefore, he would pay the entire bill," Kohli said.This has cleared the way for Puneet to complete his master's programme at Hofstra University, New York. When Kohli informed the HC of the development, Justice Mahajan recorded Mehta's contribution and the help rendered by the amicus and the bank's counsel Garima Jain before disposing of the petition.