Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was left red-faced on Thursday when the Bombay High Court questioned why it kept changing the size and other features of currency from time to time. The court has granted the top bank six weeks to justify its decision.
A bench of Chief Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice Nitin Jamdar also took a jibe at the apex bank's 'demonetisation' move. The bench said, while this move was purportedly to expose black money, 99 per cent of the total currency was returned to the bank.
The bench made these remarks as it was hearing a petition filed by the National Association for Blind (NAB), which had moved the bench after RBI introduced the new notes.
The association highlighted the difficulties faced by the visually impaired in identifying and differentiating between the various denominations of newly issued currency.
"We want to know what is the compulsion that you keep on changing the size, colour and other features of the currency from time to time," CJ Nandrajog remarked.
The Chief Justice further said that such a practice is hardly followed by banks in other countries of the world. At this, the counsel appearing for RBI made an attempt to justify how the visually impaired persons could differentiate between two different coins.
The counsel was however interrupted by CJ Nandrajog, who said, "Tell us this on record. File an affidavit and justify your decision." "You had said demonetisation would bring out black currency but what happened is that 99 per cent of the currency was returned to you. Where is the black money? Was it a myth?" CJ Nandrajog remarked.
The bench accordingly adjourned the matter for further hearing after six weeks.
