New Delhi, Nov 1 :
The Delhi High Court on Friday sought responses from the Centre, the AAP government in the national capital and the RBI on a PIL seeking removal of restrictions on cash withdrawals from the scam-hit Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank Ltd. A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice C Hari Shankar issued notices to the Union Ministry of Finance, the Delhi government, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the PMC Bank, directing them to indicate their stand on the plea, which has sought a 100-per cent insurance cover for customers’ money deposited in the bank. The PMC Bank has been put under restrictions by the RBI, following the unearthing of a Rs 4,355-crore scam. Cash withdrawals have been capped by the RBI at Rs 40,000 for a six-month period, causing panic and distress among the bank’s customers, petitioner Bejon Kumar Misra has said in his plea. In the petition filed through advocate Shashank Deo Sudhi, Misra has sought quashing of the RBI notifications by which the restrictions were placed on cash withdrawals from the bank. He has also said a full insurance coverage of the depositors’ money was the need of the hour, “considering the reoccurrence of financial scams in co-operative and nationalised banks”. Apart from that, the petition also seeks exhaustive and comprehensive guidelines to safeguard banking and co-operative deposits in the eventuality of an emergency financial crisis. The plea was first moved by Misra in the Supreme Court, which refused to entertain it last month and asked him to approach the high court. Subsequently, he filed the petition in the Delhi High Court. The petition has sought directions to the Centre and the RBI for constituting a high-powered committee to look into the working and operations of all cooperative banks “in order to have a robust and transparent mechanism, which can inspire confidence of the public in cooperative banks”.
