Co-op banks wait for SC verdict with bated breath

All eyes are glued to the apex court of the land to know what is going to happen to the petition filed by several cooperative banks against the Centre decision not to allow exchange and deposits in the cooperative structure. The matter is scheduled to come up today on Friday.

Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat-to name only a few have protested against the decision and have taken the matter to the court.

Earlier on Tuesday, a Bench led by Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur had agreed to hear a petition filed jointly by seven district co-operative banks from Kerala claiming demonetization policy is anti-poor and capable of reducing cooperative sector to penury.

The petition has argued that the decision of the centre is not only affecting the co-op banks of Kerala but all other co-op banks across the states in the country.

It has made PMO, Centre and RBI as the party claiming that the move has crippled the cooperative sector.

Media reports from Telangana say the 275 branches of District Cooperative Central Banks in Telangana are eagerly awaiting the outcome of a writ petition in the Supreme Court to be heard on Friday, challenging the notifications of the Reserve Bank of India and the Union government that prohibited district cooperative banks from accepting or allowing exchange of the demonetised Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes.

According to Telangana State Cooperative Bank chairman K. Ravinder Rao the DCCBs were 100 per cent KYC-compliant and were on core banking solutions platform. Aadhaar seeding was completed for 70 per cent of members. The banks were also equipped with fake note detectors, he added.

Meanwhile, the central government on Thursday defended before Karnataka high court, the restriction imposed on cooperative societies with regard to withdrawal of money from their bank accounts, during the ongoing demonetization process.

It submitted in the Karnataka high court, that the intention of the central government was to prevent what he termed “surreptitious routing” of black money through any channel and the restriction is temporary in nature.

Exit mobile version