After the Chairman of Rajkot District Cooperative Bank and Porbandar MP Vitthal Radadiya’s open opposition to demonetization and maltreatment of co-op banks, more and more BJP cooperators are voicing their concern. Some of them are in fact party to the petition in the Supreme Court on the issue dragging both the Centre and the RBI.
Preetpal Belchandan, Chairman of Durg district cooperative bank has also filed a petition in the apex court saying ” if the purported purpose of the impugned notifications is to deal with the menace of fake currency notes as also to manage the issues arising out of unaccounted wealth. If that be so, there is no discernible reason as to why District Central Co-operative Banks have been restrained from accepting deposits of the Specified Bank Notes from their customers into their respective accounts and not permitting them to exchange the said Notes to the extent permitted by the Reserve Bank of India.
He says RBI has not given any reasons for such arbitrary exclusion. Hence, the impugned notifications suffer from the vice of arbitrariness as also non application of mind, he says through his petition.
It is also a violation of the principle of natural justice as co-op banks are restrained from carrying out their legitimate business resulting in grave consequences. It is directly and indirectly affecting vast sections of the Society, without as much as putting them on notice prior to taking any such decision, Belchandan says.
He further says if one of the purported intentions of the impugned notification being to deal with unaccounted wealth most of the co-op banks are KYC compliant and can assist govt in its bid to unearth the black money.
He also lamented that an artificial distinction has been created between various types of co-operative banks i.e. while the State and Urban Co-operative Banks have been permitted to accept deposits a similar permission has not been granted to District Co-operative Banks.
“That it is respectfully submitted that the impugned notification is also anti-competitive; violative of the spirit of the Constitution and unfairly seeks to promote the interests of certain Banks and Financial Institutions to the detriment of the Petitioner Banks”, he says.
“In light of the facts and circumstances as stated this Hon’ble Court may be pleased to issue an appropriate writ striking down the Notification dated 08.11.2016 issued by the Centre and the RBI”, the petition prays.