Curb on money transactions, including withdrawals and wedding expenses, are “only reasonable restrictions” imposed on the rights of the public for a limited time, the government said in its latest affidavit.
“Cancellation of legal tender of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes is only a reasonable restriction and regulatory in nature. Merely because there is a restriction on the public to use the old high denomination notes, the regulation cannot be held to be illegal or unreasonable restriction as there is no infringement of the fundamental rights of citizens,” the affidavit said.
Filed on Thursday on the eve of a major court hearing before a Bench led by Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur, the affidavit justified that multiple notifications issued post demonetisation had not deprived the public of their money.
“They can still use their money by use of cheques, e-transfer, etc,” the affidavit said.
In a bid to quieten criticism that the checks on withdrawals is a violation of the fundamental rights under the Constitution, the government said the demonetisation notifications were “reasonable restraints imposed in the interests of the general public for the greater good of the public at large.”
The government said it was incorrect to say that the present banking architecture was inadequate to deal with 1.2 billion population. The Centre claimed that the system had been “functioning very well over the years.”
Reminding the court of the enormity of the demonetisation policy, the government said it had pooled the resources of 1,32,834 bank branches, 1,54,939 post office branches, 1,26,495 banking correspondents to distribute cash. Besides, the total number of outstanding debit and credit cards is 73,88,44,727.
Recalibration of ATMs
It said 1.69 lakh ATMs were recalibrated as on November 28. “By December 2, it is expected that 1.96 lakh ATMs will be recalibrated. It is noteworthy that around 8,000 ATMs are being recalibrated on a daily basis,” the government reeled out the figures.
The government denied any lack of preparedness in implementing the demonetisation policy. It said the Central Board of the RBI had recommended to the government to cancel the legal tender of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 with effect from November 8, which it did.
