<p style=”text-align: justify; “>The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought to prevail on the Centre to open a fresh window for exchange of scrapped Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes for people who missed the December 30 deadline, if they could establish that the money was theirs and they had a genuine reason for not changing it.</p><p style=”text-align: justify; “>The court was a step away from ensuring an exchange opportunity when the Centre sought two weeks to respond to the suggestion. The court’s previous inquiries had so far failed to move the Centre.</p><p style=”text-align: justify; “>The government, through solicitor general Ranjit Kumar, relied on data about misuse of exchange of old currency provisions to explain its reluctance to heed the court’s hints, even though PM Narendra Modi had on November 8 said those with genuine difficulties could expect a window after the year-end deadline.</p><p style=”text-align: justify; “>But the court’s argument that genuine cases should not be punished by turning hard-earned money into trash saw the SG seeking time. “It will not be a general window but on a case to case basis. Give me two weeks, I will take instructions from the government,” he said.</p><p style=”text-align: justify; “>Scores of petitions were filed in the SC accusing the government of reneging on the promise and seeking relief to exchange scrapped currency notes. The SC had weeded out a majority of them, terming reasons for failure to meet the December 31 deadline as “cock and bull story”. However, 10 petitions survived the SC’s stringent scrutiny and on Tuesday, the court sought Kumar’s response.</p><p style=”text-align: justify; “>When the SG reiterated the Centre’s consistent stand, a bench of Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice D Y Chandrachud said, “It is our duty to caution you. If a person is alone and suffered grave illness during the November 9 to December 30 period, it becomes absolutely impossible for him to deposit his old currency notes. If he can prove that it is his hard earned money and not somebody else’s, he would surely require the window you had promised.</p><p style=”text-align: justify; “>”We ourselves (the bench) have rejected many petitions as we found their reasons not genuine. But those with genuine difficulty must have a chance to convince the authorities. If you do not agree to open a window, then we will say it is open for such persons who can prove genuineness of their money and difficulty to deposit within December 30 deadline to seek relief from the government. He should have an opportunity to explain and replace the old money. You cannot turn his genuine money into trash.”</p><p style=”text-align: justify; “>The bench said the government must sort this out. “We have seen cases where a person has lost his genuine money for no fault of his. The government cannot trash a person’s genuine money. You (the government) cannot render a person’s genuine money go waste like this,” it said.</p><p style=”text-align: justify; “>On March 21, the SC had told the government , “You must understand that these people are in dire straits. If they cannot establish the genuineness of the delay in depositing the scrapped currency, they would be liable for prosecution. The PM’s speech as well as the notification that followed immediately after had promised to provide a window to people in such difficulty. But the ordinance did not provide any window except for NRIs and those Indians who were travelling abroad at that time. These people hoped that they will get another chance but the ordinance issued on the last day of deadline on December 31 suddenly closed that window. Everyone heard the PM and believed that the PM’s words cannot be taken back.”</p>
