One more chance to exchange your demonetised notes in 15 days

The people who missed the December 30 deadline, now have another chance to exchange their old notes. On Tuesday, supreme court sought to prevail on the Centre to open a fresh window for exchange of scrapped Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, on a condition that a person has to prove that the money was theirs and they had a genuine reason for not changing it.

From ensuring an exchange opportunity, the court was a step away when the Centre sought two weeks to respond to the suggestion. The court’s previous inquiries had so far failed to move the Centre.

Through solicitor general Ranjit Kumar, the government relied on data about misuse of exchange of old currency provisions to explain its reluctance to heed the court’s hints, even though PM Narendra Modi had on November 8 said those with genuine difficulties could expect a window after the year-end deadline.

But the court’s argument that genuine cases should not be punished by turning hard-earned money into trash saw the SG seeking time. “It will not be a general window but on a case to case basis. Give me two weeks, I will take instructions from the government,” he said.