#Demonetisation: How can you deprive a person of his money? Supreme Court to Centre

The Supreme Court today urged the Centre to explore the possibility of providing a window for depositing old notes with the RBI for those people who could not do so due to compelling reasons, in a matter related to demonetisation..A Bench of Chief Justice JS Khehar and Justice DY Chandrachud made some strong remarks in a batch of petitions challenging the scrapping of the March 31 deadline to deposit demonetised notes with RBI..Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his address on demonetisation on November 8 last year, had said that those who couldn’t deposit or exchange the scrapped Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes during the 50-day window would be allowed to do so till March 31, 2017 at specified offices of the RBI. The notification issued on November 8 also stated the same..However, on December 30 last year, the Centre came out with the Specified Bank Notes (Cessation of Liability) Ordinance, 2016, by which the right to deposit demonetised notes with RBI till March 31 was restricted to non-resident Indians. This has been challenged by the petitioner as violative of Article 14 and contrary to the earlier notification of November 8..When the matter came up for hearing today, the Bench asked Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar, who was appearing for the Centre, on how a person could be deprived of his legitimate money due to no fault of his. Chief Justice Khehar said,.“Consider a person who is absolutely unable to deposit money. If he is able to prove that it is his legitimate money then how can you deprive him of his money? You cannot take his money away.”.The Bench orally asked the Centre to explore possibility of allowing a window for such persons who could not deposit money for genuine reasons..The Centre and the RBI have been allowed two weeks to respond. The matter is likely to be heard again on July 18.