RBI rapped over exchanging notes in dead man’s locker

Mumbai: Proceedings in an otherwise routine testamentary petition, which sought to legitimise the will of a dead person, filed in the Bombay high court led to a judge getting miffed with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on its refusal to comply with his order for the exchange of scrapped notes exchanged with legal tender. The court had on December 20 last year ordered for the exchange of the scrapped notes worth Rs 14 lakh that was kept in the bank locker of a deceased person.   

Acting on the request of the petitioner, the court had asked officials to open a locker belonging to the deceased husband of the petitioner in the Kotak Mahindra Bank and get demonetised notes changed. However, RBI refused to change the notes and on January 20 wrote to the court that the demonetisation ordinance does not permit them to change the currency after December 31, 2016. The court appointed advocate V. Dhond as Amicus Curiae to intervene with RBI to arrive at a solution for dealing with such instances, which are likely to recur frequently in the future.

According to court officials, the petitioner Ravindra Gill had filed a testamentary petition to probate her deceased husband’s will in December 2, 2016. As the petition was ongoing, she requested the court to open a locker in the name of her husband and if there were demonetised currency in it to get them changed and keep them with the court till her petition was disposed. In lieu of the request the court asked the court officials to open the locker and make an inventory of notes and get them changed.

However, on January 20,2017 P.K. Nayak, general manager of the Reserve Bank of India, in a written reply refused to comply with the court order “because of the Specified Banknotes (Cessation of Liabilities) Ordinance 2016 with effect from 31st December 2016”. Justice Patel said, “In my view, it is not open to any officer of the Reserve Bank of India to respond in this fashion in the face of an order of the court.”