SC agrees to hear plea on insuring PMC Bank customers

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear a plea seeking directions for redressal of certain aspects, including insuring around 15 lakh people whose money is blocked in the scam-hit Punjab & Maharashtra Co-operative Bank (PMC Bank).

Last month, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had imposed regulatory restrictions on PMC Bank under the provisions of the Banking Regulation Act. The RBI has initially allowed depositors to withdraw a paltry Rs 1,000, followed by Rs 25,000 and now raised to Rs 40,000, but the customers have been demanding full access to all their accounts.

A bench headed by Justice N. V. Ramana said it would consider listing of the plea when the matter was mentioned for urgent listing before it.

The petition was filed by Delhi-based Bejon Kumar Misra, who has said that the RBI’s move has caused disastrous consequences for depositors. The petitioner also alleged that the Centre and the RBI had not taken any emergency steps towards the protection of the hard-earned money of around 15 lakh customers of PMC Bank.

The plea requested the court to issue an exhaustive and comprehensive guideline to safeguard the banking and co-operative deposits in the eventuality of emergency financial crisis where common people are financially stranded by the acts of few unscrupulous persons which eventually leading to various personal irreversible catastrophes.

He has also sought quashing of the RBI notifications restricting the limit of withdrawal of deposited amount in PMC Bank.

 Published on: Oct 16, 2019 at 21:30 IST

IANS