Supreme Court refuses any direction on plea to exchange demonetised notes

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday refused to pass any direction on a plea filed by a man seeking a direction to exchange over Rs 14 lakh, which were found in his bank locker of his late mother.

A bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra said that it would look into the plea after a batch of pending pleas on the issue of demonetisation were disposed of by a bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar.

The top court was hearing a plea filed by one Buddhi Ballabh Joshi, through his advocate Rahul Trivedi, seeking a direction to exchange Rs 14,50,000 lakh found in the bank locker of his late mother.

The petitioner claimed that he was the adopted son of one late Chandrakanta Joshi, who executed a will in his favour and after the death of his mother, he had filed a suit for probate (process through which a will is proved in court) in the court of the district judge, Gautambudh Nagar, UP.

During the pendency of the case, demonetisation policy was implemented and therefore, got had no option, but to approach the appropriate court of law to get the old currency exchanged and transferred into the account of his late mother, he said.

"Keeping in view the aforesaid facts in mind the petitioner filed a suit for issuing the certificate of inheritance for the several bank accounts and bank locker of deceased. Civil judge (senior division) directed the bank to open the locker of my mother in the presence of bank officials and independent witnesses.

"When the locker was opened, currency in denominations of Rs 1000 and Rs 500 worth Rs 14,50,000 was found. Due to demonetisation the currency was no longer a legal tender, therefore the subordinate court directed that the amount be deposited with the RBI and the entire amount be transferred in the account of deceased Chandra Kanta Joshi," he said.

The bank officials tried to deposit the money in the Reserve Bank of India, but it refused to deposit the amount citing the pending cases in the Supreme Court, it said.

The Prime Minister, in a televised address to the nation on November eight last year had declared that high denomination notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 would no longer be legal tender.