All problems will end in 15 days: Govt reassures SC on note ban inconvenience

Defending the ban on high-currency notes, the government on Friday told the Supreme Court that it is "not sitting around doing nothing" and all the problems will be over in another "10-15 days". 

The government was responding to the apex court's question on why the former had not been able to give Rs 24,000 to every customer per week. "Should there be a minimum amount the bank should give to customer?" it asked.

Prashant Bhushan, who was appearing on behalf of a petitioner, told the court that there was no preparation on part of the government to deal with the impending situation. “There was no cash in ATMs, recalibration was not done well and cooperative banks were being discriminated against,” Bhushan told the court.

Attorney general Mukul Rohatgi, however, told the court that the government had taken all the necessary steps to ease the inconvenience of the public.

The bench of Chief Justice T.S. Thakur, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud also asked the government to state if it could relax curbs on accepting deposits by the district cooperative banks after imposing certain conditions.

Senior counsel Kapil Sibal, appearing for a petitioner, told the court that contrary to the government's claim, there was no cash in the banks. Former Finance Minister and senior counsel P. Chidambaram told the court that all the Reserve Bank of India printing presses can print only 3 billion currency notes per month.

Replacing every demonetised note with a new note will take at least six months, Chidambaram told the court.

However, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi told the Supreme Court  that since November 8, deposits of around Rs 12 lakh crore have come back into the banking system, which is higher than government estimates. The deposits could go up by another Rs 1 lakh crore, Rohatgi told apex court, while assuring the SC that Rs 4 lakh crore worth of new notes have been printed. He added that about Rs 3.5 lakh crore notes of Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 denomination have been pumped back into the banking system.

The Supreme Court was hearing a batch of petitions and public interest litigations (PILs) challenging the demonetisation policy of the Central government, which came into effect on the midnight of November 8.

Several petitions were filed, including one by Vivek Narayan Sharma, against the policy that has "caused massive upheavals" across the nation. The petitioners have questioned the government's rational and modus operandi behind the implementation of the policy, as it has reportedly caused inconvenience to the general public.

The hearing will resume on December 14.