The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Centre to suggest urgent measures to remedy the inconvenience faced by the public which included a minimum assured limit on withdrawal in a week and a mechanism to enable district cooperative banks to deposit the old currency deposited with them.
Among the many issues raised by a batch of two dozen petitions in the apex court, the court framed nine questions of law that required adjudication by the court. But for the present, the bench of Chief Justice TS Thakur, Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud focused on the inconvenience faced by public due to shortage of cash supply to banks.
leading the charge against the Centre, senior advocates Kapil Sibal and P Chidambaram informed the Court that contrary to Government’s claim that citizens could withdraw Rs 24,000 each week, the banks were turning away customers by claiming there was no cash. In some instances, the bank managers were allowing withdrawal limit of as low as Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000 per week, which was insufficient for a family to run household expenses.
The bench asked Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, “How much is the gestation period going to be we want to know. After all, was there a plan in place before you prepared this policy and was mind applied to how much will return in old notes, how much new notes are to be printed. If you projected to receive Rs 11-12 lakh crore, you should have arranged for the new notes.”
Rohatgi said that Rs 24,000 withdrawal limit was fixed as an outer limit keeping in mind the shortage of new currency notes. “This is a maximum limit you can reach and not a minimum assured sum,” A-G said. Chidambaram pointed out that as per his estimates being a former Finance Minister himself, the country’s mints will take another six to seven months to replenish the cash reserves with banks. As on date, close to Rs 3.5 lakh crore new currency notes are in the market in lieu of Rs 15 lakh crore currency that was removed. He suggested of introducing a floor limit on withdrawal so that every customer gets at least a minimum amount of say Rs 10,000, if not Rs 24,000.
Sibal who appeared for another petitioner said that the Government cannot deprive customers of their legitimate money. “This is breach of trust. We have entrusted our money with banks and no limit can be placed on our withdrawal. We can understand 86 per cent of currency is black, but 86 per cent of bank accounts are not black,” Sibal submitted.
The bench asked Rohatgi to suggest by Wednesday on a minimum limit of withdrawal. In addition, the Court directed the Centre to ready a proposal to ensure district cooperative banks can deposit the demonetised currency collected from their customers and withdraw new currency to give to their clients.
The bench indicated that it will frame the questions of law on the next date and was even open for listing the matter before a Constitution Bench of five judges.