Businessmen petition Kerala High Court for converting Rs 20 lakh old notes

Kochi: Two businessmen on Tuesday filed a petition before the Kerala High Court seeking a directive to the Reserve Bank of India  to convert Rs 20.50 lakh  confiscated old notes to the new currency notes. Two Thiruvananthapuram natives S.P. Mahesh and Manoj S. Nair, Jawahar Nagar,  who moved the court, argued that on November 11, 2016, they were going to the bank to submit the old denomination notes of Rs 20,50,000 after demonetisation. However, the local police checked the car and confiscated the money presuming it as black money.  They registered a crime and kept  the money in a locker with the SBT, Nanthancode branch, they said.

The police informed the income tax department which verified the  source of money and got convinced. The  department also certified that the money seized was from acceptable sources. The sub-divisional magistrate (SDM), Thiruvananthapuram,  had held that there was no evidence of any financial crime and  directed to release the amount to the petitioners. The SDM also issued a letter to the regional director, RBI, Thiruvananthapuram, to make necessary arrangements to convert the notes which are denominations of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500. But there was no response from the RBI. Hence, the petitioners approached the court seeking a directive to the RBI to comply with the order of SDM, Thiruvananthapuram.