The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Central government what their apprehension was if people used old Rs 500 notes for basic necessities.
"What is your apprehension if government hospitals are allowed to accept scrapped notes? Why should people suffer if you are not able to supply new notes to them?" the bench of Chief Justice T S Thakur and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud asked, and reserved its order.
The apex court drew attention to people's problems, who are unable to get the new Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 notes, while bankers and other individuals have been nabbed for possession of lakhs and crores in new notes.
The banks are currently unable to give Rs. 24,000, the maximum amount people are allowed to withdraw from their accounts.
Attorney general Mukul Rohatgi said that the problem would soon be over. The government is currently working on printing new Rs 500 notes, which had been less in circulation. Rohatgi asked the court to not pass an interim order to make it permissible to use the older notes.
"We have only 14 days left. The idea behind demonetisation was to root out black money and the government has been able to achieve its target. This country is witnessing a revolution. No other government dared to do so earlier. The government has taken a decision and its answerable to Parliament," he said.
The court, however, said that it may pass an interim order to reduce their inconvenience. They also questioned how large amounts of new notes were recovered from bank officials and what the government policy on supplying new notes to different banks was.
Recently, multiple raids on Axis Bank and other individuals have led to the discovery of more than Rs 300 crore.
On Friday, Maharashtra Police arrested 11 people travelling from Nagpur to Karanja with Rs 41 lakh. The money was seized.
