The Supreme Court on Monday sought the response of the Centre and the RBI on BJP leader Subramanian Swamy’s plea for a CBI probe into the role of RBI officials in the various banking scandals such as Kingfisher Airlines, Yes Bank, Nirav Modi and Bank of Maharashtra involving the default of bank loans.

A bench of Justice B.R.Gavai and Justice B.V. Nagarathna while issuing notices on the petition filed by Swamy with advocate Sathya Sabharwal posted the matter for hearing after four weeks.

Appearing in person, Swamy argued that despite the various bank related financial scandals rocking the country over the years, no RBI official had been prosecuted so far.

He pointed out that the CBI had prosecuted the officials of the concerned banks, besides government and private individuals but never acted against the RBI officials.

Failure to take action against the RBI officials was a violation of Article 14(right to equality) of the Constitution, he argued.

“Despite playing a key role in the allocation of funds to various projects, RBI nominees have not been touched by CBI enquiries from 2000 till today,” he argued.

The BJP leader said the central bank officials play the role of “nominee directors” in various banks and they have a responsibility in ensuring that the loans disbursed are repaid on time and there are no defaults.

He said no officer of theRBI has so far been held accountable “for any dereliction of duty” in the various fraud cases reported against banks.