Allow people to deposit banned notes one more time: SC to govt

The Supreme Court on Tuesday threw open the possibility for the exchange of scrapped Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 currency notes whose possession is currently a crime attracting heavy penalty and prosecution under an Act of Parliament.

The apex court criticised the Centre in very harsh terms for shutting the note exchange window on December 31 instead of allowing it till March 31 as declared by Prime Minister Modi in his televised announcement on demonetisation on November 8.

Giving in to the court’s harsh words coming from Chief Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar, the Centre instantly agreed through its Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar to review the genuineness of each case where people still have the scrapped notes.

Anticipating the Court’s move, the Solicitor General urged the SC not to issue an order opening a common window for exchanging notes. He instead promised that the government will consider examining all the instances where people have old notes.

“You cannot trash a person’s genuine hard-earned money and let it go waste like this. You had promised them a window, now you can’t go back on your word to those who had genuine difficulty,” the CJI said.

“If a person can prove it is his money and had real difficulty in depositing by December 31, they must get a chance to change them,” the court said. “If there is a genuine person, he should have the opportunity; if his failing (to deposit old notes) was genuine, his money cannot be taken away,” the court added.

The court also took offence to the rules for exchange and deposit being changed several times after scrapping old notes.