De-monetisation: Pregnant woman challenges restriction to deposit 500, 1000 notes till March 31

Troubles relating to de-monetisation has reached the Supreme Court yet again. The Court yesterday issued notice to Central government and Reserve Bank of India in a batch of petitions alleging that citizens are not being allowed to deposit demonetised Rs. 500 and Rs 1000 notes till March 31, as was initially promised..The matter was heard by a Bench presided by Chief Justice of India JS Khehar. Senior Advocate SB Upadhyay appeared for the petitioners along with advocates Neeraj Shekhar and Animesh Kumar..One of the petitioners, Sudha Mishra has contended that she could not exchange a substantial amount of the defunct currency notes in November and December due to pregnancy..However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his address on November 8, 2016 had said that those who couldn’t deposit or exchange the scrapped Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes during the 50-day window will be allowed to do so till March 31, 2017 at specified offices of the RBI till March 31. The notification issued on November 8 also stated the same. Mishra, therefore, decided to deposit the de-monetised notes after giving birth to her child..However, on December 30, 2016, the Ministry of Law and Justice came out with 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..The petitioner has contended that the said ordinance is arbitrary and violative of Article 14 and contrary to the earlier notification of November 8..The Supreme Court issued notices to Centre and the Reserve Bank of India and has fixed the matter for further hearing on March 10.