NEW DELHI, Nov 15:
The Supreme Court today refused to stay the Government notification demonetising Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes but told it to reduce the people’s trauma, saying “you cannot have surgical strike” against them.
“You (Centre) can have a surgical strike against blackmoney but you cannot have surgical strike against the people of the country,” a bench comprising Chief Justice T S Thakur and Justice D Y Chandrachud said, pointing to the long queues at banks and ATMs.
“Carpenters, maids, vegetable sellers are dependent on cash. Are you capable of reducing their trauma? Your aim is to wipe out blackmoney but people are traumatised standing in queues for hours doing nothing,” the bench said.
“They (Centre) call it surgical strike. You (Kapil Sibal appearing for a petitioner) call it carpet-bombing. The object of such measures is against the people hoarding cash,”it said.
While observing that fighting the blackmoney menace was a “laudable” step, it asked the Centre to “consider taking steps to ease the pain of the common people” and also consider raising the limit of cash withdrawals.
“Why can’t it be raised to a reasonable level so that there is less number of people standing in the queue,” the bench said, adding that the inconvenience part has to be looked into.(PTI)
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