The Supreme Court gives the Centre one last chance to respond to a PIL asking for a CBI investigation into the RBI’s handling of defaced currency notes.

The Supreme Court has given the Centre one last chance to respond to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) that calls for a CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) probe into the RBI (Reserve Bank of India) for exchanging damaged currency notes worth Rs. 30 crores. These notes are said to have belonged to a Kashmiri separatist group. The two-Judge Bench, consisting of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, noted that the Union of India had already been given ample time to reply, but decided to extend the deadline by four weeks “in the interest of justice.” The PIL was filed by Satish Bhardwaj, who claimed that in 2013, the Jammu branch of the RBI exchanged these notes linked to a separatist group named “Kashmir Graffitti.”

The PIL stated that the Jammu branch’s action to exchange Rs. 30 crores of damaged Indian currency, allegedly connected to a separatist group aiming to disrupt peace in Jammu and Kashmir, is illegal and requires court intervention. It was mentioned that a separatist group in Kashmir had claimed on Facebook to have stamped separatist slogans on Indian currency worth Rs. 30 crores between May and August 2013. Consequently, the petitioner requested a CBI investigation overseen by the court, arguing that currency exchanges must follow legal guidelines and that stamped currency should not be exchanged according to RBI rules.