SC notice to Centre, RBI over deposit of demonetised notes

The Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to the Centre and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on a batch of petitions,  challenging the bar on depositing demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.

The bar went against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s promise at the time of demonetisation on November 8, the petitioners contended. A three-judge bench presided over by Chief Justice J S Khehar sought a reply from the Union government and the RBI by Friday.

The bench, also comprising Justices D Y Chandrachud and Sanjay Kishan Kaul, was initially not inclined to entertain the PILs by telling the petitioners’ counsel that they can approach the government with their plea. Later, the court preferred to admit the PILs and directed the counsel of Sudha Mishra and Sarla Shrivastav to hand over a copy of the petitions to the government counsel.

The petitioners’ counsel claimed that they trusted the prime minister’s word and the subsequent notification by the RBI that those who could not deposit the scrapped notes by December 30, 2016 could do so at the RBI till March 31 this year.

Mishra, in her plea, submitted that she was pregnant and residing at her parental home in Ranchi at the time of demonetisation. She claimed that after her return to her matrimonial home in Delhi, she was “shocked and surprised” that an ordinance dated December 30 created a separate class of people under the Non-Resident Indian bracket, who alone could deposit demonetised notes till March 31.