Long lines for cash; India court worried
Supreme Court You can’t shut them (the people) from coming to courts. People are frantic to get money. People are affected. We may have riots in the streets. Let them go (to the courts)
new delhi — The Supreme Court on Friday refused to stay, for now, the petitions against demonetisation pending before different High Courts and subordinate courts as it cautioned that if hardship continues, there may be riots.
Asking the government to ease the situation, the court observed if hardship continues “we may have riots” as “people have become frantic” through standing in queues for long hours.
“That only shows the magnitude of the problem. The problem is serious. You can’t shut them from coming to courts. People are frantic to get money. People are affected. We may have riots in the streets. Let them go (to the courts),” said a bench of Chief Justice T.S. Thakur and Justice Anil R. Dave as Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi urged the court to stay all such proceeding in High Courts and subordinate courts.
The court said that government could not dispute that “there is suffering and difficulty.”
At the outset of the hearing, the bench asked how it is that swapping of demonetised currency notes with the new ones has been brought down from Rs 4,500 to Rs 2,000, even as it had asked the government to take steps to ease the hardship being faced by the people.
Adjourning the matter for November 25, the court asked the At- torney General to move transfer petitions, which the court will consider for transferring cases to Delhi.
The Narendra Modi government had on November 8 demonetised Rs500 and Rs1,000 currency note to “curb black money and corruption”.
Pointing that people were moving the courts because of they are suffering, the court observed: “We can’t shut them out from the court.”
“It is a serious matter, people should not suffer,” observed Chief Justice Thakur as Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi told the court that government was monitoring the situation “day after day, hour after hour”.
He told the court that government had already issued directions for giving Rs50,000 to traders, farmers, Rs250,000 for weddings and so on.
As Rohatgi gave the details of 200,000 ATMs, 125,000 bank branches, and petrol pumps from where people could get money, senior counsel Kapil Sibal told the court that 75,000 ATMs were not functional and a large number of them are not calibrated to dispense the new currency notes.
Appearing for one of the petitioners, Sibal said that currency worth Rs23 lakh crore is to be printed and currency worth Rs14 lakh crore have been demonetised and there is no replacement. He said currency worth nine lakh crores was in circulation.
Describing Sibal’s statement as politically inspired, Attorney General urged the court “to go and see, the queues have become shorter”.
As Sibal defended his position, Rohatgi shot back: “I have seen your press conference”. Sibal is one of the senior spokesmen of the Congress.
At the outset, the bench questioned the relief measures undertaken by the Centre by saying, “Last time you said there will be relief for people in the coming days but you have squeezed the exchange limit to Rs2,000 only.”
“What is the difficulty? “the bench asked Rohatgi.
The AG explained the situation by stating that after printing, the currency has to be moved to thousands of centres across the country and ATMs have to be re-calibrated.
“There is no shortage of funds,” he said. —