HYDERABAD: A division bench of the Hyderabad High Court on Thursday gave the Central government and the Reserve Bank of India time till December 14 to file their counter-affidavits on public interest litigations (PILs) challenging the notification dated November 8, 2016 for demonetisation of high value notes. However, the bench also sought the reasons as to why there was a delay in filing the replies in the first place.
The bench, comprising acting chief justice Ramesh Ranganathan and justice A Shankar Narayana, was dealing with two different petitions.
“People are facing huge problems due to unavailability of cash in banks and ATMs. Both the Centre and RBI should come up before the court and explain their power in scrapping the higher value currency. If the Supreme Court does not grant stay on hearing of the similar cases in the High Courts before Wednesday the issue of power of the government to issue such a notification demonetising high value notes will be examined,” the bench observed. The bench also made it clear that it cannot pass an interim order until and unless counter-affidavits are filed by the Centre and RBI.
The bench was hearing a petition filed by Venkateswara Rao and K Srinivas challenging the constitutional validity of the notification for demonetisation. Another petition was filed by former minister MV Mysura Reddy challenging the restrictions imposed on withdrawal of cash from banks.
On an earlier occasion, the bench, while adjourning the case to December 8, had directed the Centre and RBI to file counter-affidavits in detail explaining their stand on the powers of the RBI board to recommend to the government to scrap the high value notes and other related issues.
When the matter came up for hearing on Thursday, additional solicitor-general KM Nataraj, appearing for the Centre, and the standing counsel for RBI sought some more time for filing counter-affidavits in the matter.
Petitioner’s counsel unhappy
Opposing their plea, advocate Balaji, appearing for Mysura Reddy, alleged that the government was taking the issue very casually even when the people were dying for want of currency notes. Several farmers committed suicide due to lack of money which prevented from buying seeds, manure and obtaining loans from banks. In fact, people who were lining up before the banks and ATMs were clueless about the availability of notes. How can the government expect a citizen to go in for cashless transactions in the present situation? he asked.
While posting the matter to December 14 for further hearing, the bench asked the additional solicitor-general to ask the officers concerned to respond to the cash crunch being felt by all sections of society.