An extension to exchange demonetised currency notes, if granted by the Supreme Court, will be applicable to everyone and not just to non-residential Indians, a bench said on Tuesday, IANS reported. The court was hearing several petitions challenging the government’s decision to only allow restricted sections of people including NRIs to deposit scrapped Rs 500 and Rs 1,00 notes beyond the December 30 deadline.
The bench adjourned the hearing to July.
Appearing for the Centre, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi said the Narendra Modi government had cited its reason to extend the facility of exchanging scrapped currency notes only to NRIs. However, he held that if the bench decided to extend the deadline, it would be applicable to everyone.
“The Central government took a conscious decision that no necessity or any justifiable reason exists, either in law or on facts, to invoke its power ... to entitle any person to tender within the grace period the specified bank notes,” the government said in an affidavit to the court. The Centre also told the court that it had decided against extending the deadline to avoid wide-spread malpractices and gross misuse of the window, reported The Indian Express.
The government had earlier informed the bench of Chief Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar, Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul that it was not legally bound to extend the December 30, 2016 deadline to deposit the old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. The deadline for NRIs was March 31 this year.
In March, the court had pulled up the government for going back on its word that scrapped notes can be exchanged by anyone until March-end.“You can’t arbitrarily exercise the power by closing the window,” the court had said. “You can reject their case if you find misuse but can’t deny their rights. You can’t keep people in lurch.”
However, Rohatgi’s response to this was that the law would prevail over prime minister’s words. “If the PM has made the announcement on television that deposit can be done till March-end next year [2017] but subsequent law says one can’t do so, the law will prevail but not PM’s statement,” Rohatgi had told the court. The bench had asked the government if it had any plans of using its power to extend the deadline for all.
Modi, in his November 8 announcement, had said that people could deposit their scrapped notes in local banks until December 30, 2016. Those who fail to do so “can go to specified offices of the Reserve Bank of India up to 31st March 2017”.
When the government issued an ordinance, however, it prohibited most Indians from being able to deposit their older notes after December 30. The only people permitted to use the window till March 31 are Non-Resident Indians and citizens who were abroad between November 8 and December 30, 2016. Following this, there were protests at different RBI branches across the country.
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