The Kerala High Court has said that education loans for students should not be rejected by banks simply because of the low score issued by Credit Information Bureau India Limited, or CIBIL, Live Law reported on Wednesday.

A CIBIL score is a numeric summary of an individual’s credit history. Typically, a score equal to 700 out of 900 is considered good.

Justice PV Kunhikrishnan observed that banks should adopt a humanitarian approach while considering applications for education loans.

“Students are the nation builders of tomorrow,” Justice Kunhikrishnan said. “They have to lead this country in future. Simply because there is a low CIBIL score for a student, the education loan application ought not to have been rejected by the bank.”

The court was hearing a petition filed by a student, from Kerala’s Aluva region, who had sought a loan from the State Bank of India, according to Bar and Bench. The bank had rejected his loan application as his CIBIL score was 560.

At Thursday’s hearing, Senior Advocate KK Chandran Pillai, appearing for the bank, told the court that the student’s CIBIL score was low because the petitioner had taken two loans. He said that while one loan was written off by the bank, the other was overdue for Rs 16,667.

Senior Advocate George Poonthottam, appearing for the petitioner, submitted that his client has received a job offer from a multinational company in Oman and, therefore, would be able to clear the entire loan amount.

The court then said that it was of the opinion that the balance of convenience is in favour of the petitioner, according to Live Law.

“Banks may be hyper-technical, but a court of law cannot ignore the ground realities,” Justice PV Kunhikrishnan said. “Therefore, I am of the considered opinion that the respondents shall disburse the loan to the college of the petitioner forthwith.”