A petition has been filed in the Lahore High Court (LHC) against the central bank’s cancellation of old-design Rs 500 currency notes, seeking to call the decision unlawful. The petitioner, Shamil Paracha, submitted that the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) had cancelled the old notes without the permission of the federal government. Paracha said that the government was bearing a hefty annual cost on the printing of currency notes, and that the cost would further increase by printing new Rs 500 bills to replace the cancelled ones.
The petitioner further said the cancellation was causing problems to the people who could not deposit their notes to the bank in time and were now angry over the bank’s decision. He contended that the SBP was bound to get permission from the government according to the State Bank Act, 1956. He requested the court to declare the SBP’s notification of cancelling Rs 500 note illegal, or to extend the time limit to exchange old notes with new ones in order to save people from the loss of money.
Dumping of Rs 500 note challenged in LHC
