Demonetisation: Bombay HC asks lower courts to take cheques, DDs for bail bonds

The Bombay high court on Thursday issued a notice directing all subordinate courts in the state to begin accepting cheques and demand drafts instead of the provisional cash for bails and sureties, considering how several undertrials have been languishing in jails with no new currency notes after the Centre’s demonetisation move.

The notice, however, specifies that undertrials who pay for their bail bond and surety using cheques or DDs will only be released once they are encashed. The notice was issued by the registrar general of the high court, Mangesh Patil, owing to the cash crunch across the country.

“The notice has been issued to ensure no one languishes in jail owing to the lack of availability of cash. A person can be released only once the cheque or demand draft has been realised,” said Patil.

Patil said “in the past few weeks after demonetisation came into effect from the midnight of November 8 this year, a lot of undertrials were facing issues with their release being delayed as the cash department was not accepting money in the demonetised currency notes of Rs500 and Rs1,000.”

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