Tags:
Journalism of Courage
THE CHANDIGARH Police is all set to file a special leave petition (SLP) challenging the order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court directing it to return to the claimants the seized currency notes, which were in the shape of demonetised notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000. The police were told to give newly introduced notes of Rs 500 and Rs 2,000.
The order was passed in the month of April 2017 on the petition of a Punjab resident, who was arrested in 2016, and was refused money in the shape of valid currency by the Punjab Police. In the detailed order, the Punjab and Haryana High Court directed Chandigarh Police along with Punjab and Haryana that they should return the seized currency of the people, who claimed it after following all legal procedures, in the shape of new currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 2,000.
Sources said, “An affidavit from the side of Chandigarh Police has reached a Delhi-based lawyer practising at Supreme Court. The SLP will be filed within days. Punjab and Haryana police has already approached the apex court against the decision.”
As per the police records, the police submitted a total amount of Rs 3.32 crore in the shape of demonetised currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 in the state treasury to be exchanged in new currency notes by RBI in February 2017. All these demonetised currency notes were lying in the malkhanas of 17 police stations of Chandigarh Police. About Rs 2.35 crore out of Rs 3.32 crore was lying in the malkhana of Manimajra police station.
The old notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 were declared illegal tender after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement of demonetisation on November 8. Time period The Chandigarh Police can file an SLP against the order of Punjab and Haryana High Court within six months of the announcement of order. The SLP of Punjab and Haryana has been admitted in the apex court.
