NEWS SCAN

The Delhi High Court on agreed to hear a PIL against the Centre’s decision to demonetise Rs 500 and 1,000 notes, claiming that it was “arbitrary, unconstitutional and bad in law”. The plea was mentioned before a bench of Justice B D Ahmed and Justice Jayant Nath, which allowed it to be listed for hearing before the bench of the Chief Justice on Tuesday.

The plea said that on November 8, the Centre had issued two notifications under the RBI Act. As per the first notification, the high value currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 were banned and as per the second notification, the notes were revalidated for certain categories like making payments in government hospitals, pharmacies, railway ticketing counters etc.

“… The second notification superseded the first notification, and hence the Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes must be accepted as legal tender,” claims the plea. It also blamed the government for taking a “dual stand”, saying on one hand it was encouraging people to deposit old notes in bank accounts and on the other hand threatening them with prosecution for depositing over Rs 2.5 lakh.

As carried in Indian Express on 22.11.16