The demonetisation diktat on November 8, 2016 saw old notes – Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 – being sucked away from circulation overnight. They were no longer legal tender and hundreds of millions of Indians queued up at banks to deposit old notes, the first deadline for which was December 30, 2016.

Naturally, it’s not possible for those who are old and infirm, those who are away from the country, those who are indisposed, or simply far removed to have received the government communication, to exchange the old notes by the stipulated deadline. It was breached and how, as a result of which many were left holding their life’s savings gone in a second. Many died standing in long ATM queues in the summer heat, while many were taken ill out of sheer panic and exhaustion, unable to beat the acute cash crunch.

Now, even the Supreme Court has woken up to the horror of those left out of the demonetisation gamble, and has given two weeks time to the Centre and the Reserve Bank of India to decide on giving more time to people with genuine reasons to deposit the now invalid Rs 1000 and Rs 500 notes.

The top court has pulled up both the RBI and the Centre.

“You can’t take away my money if I was terminally ill,” the SC bench said, while coming down heavily on the Centre on its arbitrary and rather short-sighted deadline of December 30, 2016 to deposit all the old notes. The SC bench was comprised of Chief Justice JS Khehar and Justice DY Chandrachud.

Solicitor general Ranjit Kumar was representing the Centre and had to face the wrath of a visibly upset apex court, which reprimanded the government’s “conscious decision” to not extend the period beyond December 30. The deadline to exchange demonetised notes for NRIs was March 31, 2017.

The top court was cross at the Centre’s “not legally bound to give grace period” to its own citizens logic, which saw the people as mere transactional ends and customer of India’s banking service, and not as human beings guarding their hard-earned money.

In an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court in response to petitions by private individuals and a firm representing NRIs, the Centre had said: “It is most humbly submitted that the central government took a conscious decision that no necessity or any justifiable reason exists either in law or on facts to invoke its power under section 4(1)(ii) of the Ordinance to entitle any person to tender within the grace period the specified bank notes."

It must be remembered that the SC had asked the Centre in March this year why the deadline to deposit old notes hadn’t been extended beyond December 31. But while that was only a rhetorical question, this time the SC has taken cognisance of the hardships faced by ordinary citizens because of the government’s demonetisation diktat, and has batted squarely in favour of the aam aadmi.

Also read: GST: Why being small is a big risk now