New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Tuesday deferred further hearing on the demonetisation issue on July 4 after the summer vacation on the counsel for one of the petitioners seeking time to respond to the Centre”s reply.
A Bench of Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justices D Y Chandrachud and S K Kaul agreed to hear a bunch of PILs on the government not giving grace time beyond December 30 to the people to deposit the scrapped currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 in banks.
The government initially did not respond to notice, but later asserted in an affidavit that it had taken a “conscious decision” not to extend the period beyond December 30 for exchanging the demonetised notes. Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi told the Court in the last hearing on March 21 that the law gave an option to extend the period but the government did not think appropriate to exercise it.
Individuals and a firm have filed the writ petitions accusing the government of going back on the Prime Minister”s televised announcement on November 8 to allow deposit of the junked notes in the Reserve Bank of India till March 31. The petitions sought direction to the government and the RBI to allow them the window of deposits up to March 31 as given to NRIs and the people who were abroad during the demonetisation drive from November 8 to December 30.
In the last hearing, the Court raised a flicker of hope for those who could not deposit the junked notes till December 30 when they were all declared invalid through an Ordinance when it asked the government to explore if it can give a chance to only those category of people who have genuine reasons for failing to deposit the money by December 30.
The PILs assail the Specified Bank Notes Cessation of Liabilities Ordinance, which has now become an Act as passed by Parliament, asserting that it had breached the assurance given by the PM.
