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Disabled plea for rule tweak OUR LEGAL REPORTER *Calcutta, Nov. 16: *Eighty physically challenged people and patients today filed an appeal in Calcutta High Court seeking a modification in the central gazette notification announcing the demonetisation drive so that they can exchange the scrapped Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes through their representatives or lawyers. The petitioners - most of whom are more than 80 per cent physically handicapped, and also several patients admitted to hospitals and nursing homes across Bengal - said in the public interest litigation that the November 8 notification did not have any such provision. A court source said the case was likely to come up for hearing on November 18 before the division bench of Chief Justice Girish Chandra Gupta and Justice Arindam Sinha. Advocate Akbar Ali, the petitioners' counsel, said after filing the petition: "Before banning Rs 1,000, Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000 notes in 1978, the then Union government had promulgated an ordinance enabling physically challenged and elderly people and patients to get their currency notes exchanged through authorised persons or lawyers. But in the notification issued on November 8 this year, the Centre has made the personal appearance of account-holders mandatory for exchanging and depositing the banned notes at banks." "In the petition, we have also prayed before the court to consider the problems being faced by account-holders who are abroad.... We requested the court to ask the Union government to modify the notification," Ali added. A clause in the November 8 notification says: "The equivalent value of specified notes tendered may be credited to third party account, provided specific authorisation thereof accorded by the third party is presented to the bank, following standard banking procedure and on production of valid proof of identity of the person actually tendering." When journalists pointed out this clause to Ali, he said: "Why will my clients credit their amounts to a third party? Such third parties may or may not transfer the amounts to my clients' accounts." Ali drew attention to the choice of language for the prescribed forms issued by the RBI for the exchange of banned notes. "The forms have been published in English. What would a person who does not know English do? Forms should be published in all regional languages," he said. Additional solicitor-general Kaushik Chanda said he was yet to receive a copy of the petition. "Until I receive a copy of the petition, I should not comment on its contents," he said. Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list..
