Petition in Apex Court, over 15 lakh customers, to be heard tomorrow
The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear on Friday (October 18) a plea seeking directions for interim protective measures for insuring around 15 lakh people whose money is blocked in the scam-hit PMC Bank.
The matter was mentioned for urgent listing before a bench of Justices NV Ramana, R Subhash Reddy and BR Gavai which said it would consider listing of the plea.
The petition has sought a direction for issuance of “exhaustive and comprehensive guideline” to safeguard the banking and cooperative deposits in the eventuality of emergency financial crisis where citizens are financially stranded by the acts of a few “unscrupulous persons”.
The plea, filed by Delhibased Bejon Kumar Misra, said the Centre and RBI should be directed to ensure complete insulation and insurance of the hard-earned deposited money of people in various co-operative banks, including nationalised banks, by enacting an appropriate measure of 100% insurance coverage towards the deposited amount.
It said a high-powered committee should be constituted to look into the complete affairs of working and their operation in all co-operative banks to have a robust and transparent mechanism, which can inspire confidence of common public in co-operative banks.
The petition has also sought quashing of the RBI notifications restricting the limit of withdrawal of deposited amount in PMC Bank. “Being aggrieved by financial sufferings of thousands of innocent depositors of PMC Co-operative bank, the question of accountability and propriety must be addressed to inspire the confidence of the crores of the people in the banking systems,” the plea said.