Good changes entail hardship: Bombay High Court

Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Thursday refused to hear two Public Interest Litigations (PILs) filed in connection with the central government’s decision to demonitise Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes, observing, “If we want good changes, we need to bear some difficulties.”

A division bench of Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice M.S. Sonak refused to hear the petitions filed by the vice-president of the Maharashtra Navnirman Vidyarthi Sena (MNVS), Akhil Chitre, seeking that the court direct the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Union and state governments to implement the demonitisation policy properly.

In his petition, Mr Chitre raised the issue of people facing difficulties in obtaining money of smaller denominations and getting their Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes exchanged.

He prayed for separate counters at banks and post offices that would strictly dispense Rs 10, Rs 20, Rs 50, and Rs 100 denomination notes to the public.

Advocate Tapan Thatte placed this petition before the Chief Justice on behalf of Mr Chitre, but the bench refused to hear it saying that the court has already asked the government to address difficulties faced by the public. The HC added that the issue is being addressed by the Supreme Court and hence there is no need for it to entertain such petitions.

After this, advocate Satish Misra, on behalf of Soban Parveen, mentioned another petition on the demonitisation policy requesting the court to issue directions for the government to allow people to withdraw 50 per cent of the amount that they had deposited in banks prior to the prime minister’s announcement about the move.

The bench, however, observed, “If we want our economy to grow and if we want good changes, we need to bear some difficulties.”

Chief Justice Chellur added: “We all are facing some problem or the other due to demonitisation, but this is expected to get over after some days and it would bring good changes.”