The Madras High Court Bench here on Friday directed Assistant Solicitor General G.R. Swaminathan to take notice on behalf of Principal Secretary to Prime Minister and Union Finance Secretary on a public interest litigation petition seeking a direction to the Centre to ensure availability of sufficient funds in banks and ATMs. A Division Bench of Justices A. Selvam and P. Kalaiyarasan also directed Central Government Standing Counsel K.R. Laxman to take notice on behalf of Reserve Bank of India and ordered that a counter affidavit should be filed on or before January 2. The Division Bench refused to desist from hearing the case just because the Supreme Court was seized of a batch of cases against demonetisation. Justice Selvam said that those batch of cases related to recent demonetisation of Rs.500 and Rs.1,000 currency notes had nothing to do with the present plea for ensuring that bank branches and ATMs were provided with sufficient funds to meet out the day-to-day requirements of the common man. The judge also agreed with the PIL petitioner, K.K. Ramesh of Madurai, that people were subjected to great hardship due to non availability of sufficient cash in banks and ATMs since November 9 when demonetisation came into effect. "You (Centre) had created the problem. Therefore, only you should solve it," the judge told the ASG before adjourning the hearing to January 2.
