Kochi: The Kallettumkara Service Cooperative Bank has moved the Kerala High Court seeking a directive to the Reserve Bank of India to treat cooperative banks on par with nationalised banks. Excluding them from helping the general public to change Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes to valid legal tender was hostile discrimination without legal justification, the petitioners argued. They claimed that they were entitled to conduct banking activities by receiving deposits, issuing cheques and returning the deposits through cheques or paying slips as permitted in terms of the Banking Regulation Act.
The Union government as part of implementing the demonetisation had excluded the primary co-operative banks though they are treated on par with the state cooperative bank and central cooperative bank as per the provisions of the banking Act. "The denial of the permission to the petitioner is ignoring the class of people who are the depositors of the petitioner and are not having the debit or credit cards as presumed by persons who are attempting to implement demonetisation," they said.
The president of Ernakulam district cooperative bank filed a separate petition challenging the communication issued by the state cooperative department appointing 10 officers to conduct inspection without following the mandatory requirements. "It cannot be construed as an inspection contemplated under the Kerala Co-operative Societies Act," he said.
