The Allahabad High Court has observed that the Reserve Bank of India has been a "mute spectator" while banks are imposing arbitrarily high interest rates on customers despite guidelines issued by the banking regulator. The observation was made by a bench comprising Justices Mahesh Chandra Tripathi and Prashant Kumar while disposing of a petition filed by Manmeet Singh who had availed of a loan of Rs 9 lakh from a private bank. "Surprisingly, RBI had been issuing guidelines but has done nothing for the implementation of the same. They have just been a mute spectator allowing the banks to charge arbitrarily a very high rate of interest," the court observed. On the RBI's responsibility as the banking regulator in the country, the court said, "Even if the benefit of doubt is given to the banks that they are free to charge the interest rate but it is duty of the RBI to see that the customers are not inconvenienced by huge rate of interest charged by the banks." The petitioner had obtain