The Supreme Court of India on Tuesday dismissed a PIL seeking relief to exclude the time period of lockdown for calculating the limitation for presentation of cheques or demand drafts.
The Public Interest Litigation was filed by Advocate Harsh Nitin Gokhle appearing as party in person before the Court said that during the nationwide lockdown, people did not had access to the bank and as a result were unable to present the instruments for encashment within 3 months from the date of issuance.
The Reserve bank of India issued a direction vide notification dated 04.11.2011 wherein it directed that the banking instruments should be presented for encashment within 3 months from the date of issuance.
The petitioner relied on recent Supreme Court judgement passed in suo moto proceedings wherein the period of limitation for filing of proceedings under the arbitration and conciliation act, negotiable instruments act were extended by the Supreme Court till further orders.
Acting upon the plea, the bench comprising of Justice R. Banumathi, Justice Indu Malhotra & Justice Aniruddha Bose, observed that this is the policy decisions to be taken up by the Reserve Bank of India regarding which the Court cannot issue any direction. The writ petition filed under Article 32 of the Constitution of India is dismissed as not maintainable.
-India Legal Bureau