The Reserve Bank of India on Thursday refused to answer a Right to Information query seeking reasons for the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes, PTI reported. The discontinuation of the high-value notes on November 8 removed 86% of liquidity from the economy, causing a severe cash crunch in the country.

The RBI cited Section 8(1)(a) of the RTI Act, 2005, as the reason for not answering the query. The section states that there shall be no obligation to give any citizen “information, the disclosure of which which would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, relation with foreign State[s] or lead to incitement of an offence”.

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The central bank also did not give any information on how much time it will take to replenish currency notes in the economy. The RBI said the RTI request “is in the nature of seeking future date of an event [regarding replenishing notes] which is not defined as information as per Section 2(f) of the RTI act”.

However, former central information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi said the information sought by the query “does not attract” any clause exempting it from being made available. “The clause of public interest would apply where exemption clause applies on the information sought by an applicant,” Gandhi said, adding that the law required any public authority to give reasons for why exemption clauses were applicable.

Previously, the bank had refused to allow access to the minutes of the meeting of the Central Board of Directors held to decide on demonetisation. The bank had cited Section 8(1)(a) of the RTI Act while responding to the query filed by activist Venkatesh Nayak. Nayak had said he would file an appeal against their refusal.

While announcing the Centre’s currency ban decision, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had given citizens till Friday, December 30, to deposit the scrapped currency. Between November 8 and December 10, banks had collected Rs 12.44 lakh crore in demonetised notes, while Rs 4.61 lakh crore had been issued in new currency, the RBI had said on December 13. The central bank has not announced the latest figures yet. The move has been criticised by the Opposition, economists and foreign media.