Black day celebration gift: no action on late depositors of banned notes

The Centre ordered the Supreme Court that no criminal action would be taken against those who could not deposit the banned notes on time.

As the note ban inches its anniversary, the announcement comes as a sigh of relief for the Indian masses.
The court said the matter will now be heard by a five-judge Constitution bench.
The Constitution bench was set up last December to examine the validity of the Centre’s demonetisation move.

The SC bench, comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, asked the petitioners to file interlocutory applications in the pending petitions, which will be taken up by the constitution bench.

Targeted at weeding out tax evasion and corruption, the last year’s sudden announcement of Demonetisation had thrown India’s cash economy into turmoil, leaving the country in chaos.

The deposited notes are being verified by the central bank at its offices to establish the total number of currency bills returned and to weed out the fake currencies.

The government had on November 8 last year banned the use of old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes and allowed the holders of these currency bills to deposit them with banks or use them at certain notified utilities.

The Reserve Bank of India’s annual report revealed the return of demonetised high-value currency of 15.28 lakh crore to the central bank, i.e 99% of the banned currency have returned to the banking system.

This cash ban prompted the central bank to print new currency, reducing its profit. The newly-minted currency of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 went through a sophisticated verification process.

Several opposition parties including the Congress and Mamata Banerjee’s TMC have announced that they would observe November 8, the first anniversary of demonetisation, as ‘Black Day.’

And to counter the opposition, the ruling BJP has decided to observe the note ban anniversary as “anti- blackmoney day”.

Whatever might be the parties concern but the announcement of decriminalizing the late currency depositors is sure to be a matured decision.

So here comes fine news amidst the first anniversary of ‘Black Day’ celebration.