Was demonetisation policy confidential: SC asks Centre
The Supreme Court has questioned the Centre over the secrecy of its demonetisation move, asking, "When you made the policy on demonetisation, was it confidential?" As the SC was hearing a plea seeking an explanation for putting the nation to great difficulties, arguing for the Centre, AG Rohatgi said, "The government has taken all the necessary steps to ease inconveniences."
In a hearing on its decision to impose demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes, the government today told the Supreme Court that the problems being faced by people will be over in "10-15 days".Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, representing the government, said it is "not sitting around doing nothing" and claimed no violence or unrest has been reported in the last month."The government is not sitting around doing nothing. In 10-15 days, it will all be over," Rohatgi told a three-judge Supreme Court bench, which is hearing a number of petitions challenging the note ban.The Supreme Court asked the Centre whether its demonetisation decision was taken in absolute secrecy. The apex court is hearing a plea seeking rationale behind putting the entire nation to "such great difficulties".The Supreme Court asked, "When you made the policy on demonetisation, was it confidential?" The three-judge bench has framed nine questions for the adjudication to decide whether demonetisation was unconstitutional or not.NO CASH IN BANKS, ATMs: PETITIONERS Appearing on behalf of the petitioner, noted lawyer Prashant Bhusan argued that there was no preparation fro m the government to deal with the impending situation caused by demonetisation."There was no cash in ATMs, recalibration was not done well and cooperative banks were being discriminated against," Prashant Bhushan told the apex court.Senior counsel Kapil Sibal, appearing for another petitioner, told the court that contrary to the government's claim, there was no cash in the banks.Former Finance Minister and senior counsel P Chidambaram told the court that all the Reserve Bank of India printing presses can print only 300 crore currency notes per month.Replacing every demonetised note with a new note will take at least six months, Chidambaram told the court.Last week, the apex court had asked the government to see if something could be done to lessen troubles people were going through since demonetisation was announced on November 8. The matter will be next heard on December 14.STATE LIMIT OF WITHDRAWALS: SCIn its observations, the Supreme Court asked the government to state the threshold limit of cash that each account holder can withdraw from banks across the country without being refused.The bench of Chief Justice TS Thakur, Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice DY Chandrachud also asked the government to state if it could relax curbs on accepting deposits by the district cooperative banks after imposing certain conditions.On cash withdrawals, the court asked the Centre to spell out the limit of cash an account holder can withdraw as it was told that though the government said each account holder can withdraw up to Rs 24,000 per week, the banks were instead giving them only Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000. Also read:Demonetisation: What about cooperative banks, Supreme Court asks government