Five-Judge Bench To Deal With Pleas On Depositing Scrapped Notes

A five-judge constitution bench, which would decide the validity of the Centre's November 8 decision to scrap old Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes, will also deal with the pleas seeking to deposit the demonetised currency, the Supreme Court said.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra disposed of as many as 14 petitions for depositing scrapped currency notes on the ground that they could not be deposited during the window provided by Reserve Bank of India due to compelling reasons. The bench asked the petitioners to file interlocutory pleas in the pending petition to be dealt with by the constitution bench.

The top court said it has not opined on the merits of the validity of the ordinance or on the demonetisation decision, which would be dealt with by the larger bench along with the individual grievances.

Also Read: A Year Since Demonetisation, RBI Says Still Verifying Returned Notes

Attorney General K K Venugopal, appearing for the Centre, said the persons, who have approached the court for depositing scrapped notes, would not be prosecuted with regard to the amount specifically mentioned in their petitions.

Some petitioners claimed they have not challenged the constitutional validity of either the provisions of the RBI Act or the Centre' notification, but they want to deposit their demonetised currency notes.

Sachdeva added that the constitution bench should be constituted as expeditiously as possible. The Centre has already filed an affidavit saying that the government was not going to open any window now to deposit the old notes.

One of the pleas said the government had assured the people that demonetised currency notes could be exchanged at banks, post offices and RBI branches till December 30, 2016. If people were unable to deposit them by that day, they could do so till March 31, 2017 at RBI branches after complying with certain formalities.

The Prime Minister's address to the nation on the evening of November 8 last year, on demonetisation, and subsequent notifications of the federal bank were valid assurances which stood breached by the Specified Bank Notes Cessation of Liabilities Ordinance, the plea said.

The ordinance specified that only those who were abroad or armed forces personnel posted in remote areas, or others who could give valid reasons for not being able to deposit the cancelled notes at banks, could deposit the demonetised currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes till March 31 this year.

The apex court had on December 16 last year referred to a Constitution Bench, the issue of validity of government's decision to demonetise currency notes of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500. While holding that the challenge to the November 8 notification was in the arena of "public importance" as complaints of inconvenience have been brought, it had said there was a need for a direction for referring it to a larger bench for "authoritative pronouncement by five judges".

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