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1. On the 12th January, 1946 the Governor General of India in Council promulgated two Ordinances demonitising currency notes of the value of Rs. 10,000/-, Rs. 1000/- and Rs. 500/-. Ordinance No. 2 of 1946 (Bank Notes (Declaration of Holdings) Ordinance) required banks and Government Treasuries to furnish information concerning bank notes valued over Rs. 100/- held by them. Ordinance No. 3 of 1946 (High Denomination Bank Notes (Demonitisation) Ordinance) provided for the procedure to be followed for the demonitisa-lion of High Denomination Bank Notes above the value of Rs. 100/-. These two Ordinances were published in the papers the next day, the 13th January, 1946. Under different provisions of these Ordinances, the 13th and the 15th January, 1946 were declared to be Bank Holidays under the Negotiable Instruments Act. January 14th was a Sunday.

14. Section 3 of Ordinance 3 of 1946 has repeated the provisions contained in section 26 of the Reserve Bank of India Act so far as Bank Notes of the value of Rs. 500/- and upwards are I concerned. Neither in Section 3 nor in Section 5 of Ordinance 3 of 1946 is there any reference made to the provisions contained in Section 39 of the Reserve Bank of India Act.

15. Section 6, of Ordinance 3 of 1946 generally deals with exchange of High Denominational Notes 'held by persons other than Banks' and Government Treasury and definitely modifies the application of the provisions contained in the Reserve Bank of India Act other than the rights and liabilities of private persons who are holders of High Denominational Notes are concerned. Section 5 of Ordinance 3 of 1946 on the other hand which deals with the exchange of High Denominational 'Notes held by Banks' and Government Treasury does not open with the words "notwithstanding anything to the contrary in the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934."

19. As section 26 of the Reserve Bank of India Act is amended by specific provisions contained In section 3 of Ordinance 3 of 1946 High Denomination Notes have been denominated. Section 5 of the Ordinance, however, makes no reference to the Reserve Bank of India Act. By clear intendment, therefore, and by the use of different phraseologies in the different sections it is only reasonable to hold that so far as Banks are concerned, they as holders of High Denominational Notes were entitled to get the exchange values for such notes.

28. We have to consider at this stage another argument advanced on behalf of the State that the claim as put forward on behalf of the Bank cannot be entertained by the Court inasmuch as--(i) a definite procedure was laid down in the provisions contained in Ordinance 3 of 1946 read with rules and (ii) in any view the claim as made is a premature one. No doubt a new procedure was introduced by Ordinance 3 of 1946 under which the procedure to be followed for getting ex-change value of High Denomination Notes was laid down. Rules 2 and 3 read together no doubt show that the Central. Government had been given the right to authorise the Reserve Bank to allow exchange value to be given to holders of High Denomination Notes. Correspondence had been going on between the plaintiff Bank on the one hand and the Reserve Bank and the Central Government on the other. In spite of repeated requests no final order was given and there was no indication that any final order might be expected in view of the attitude adopted by the Reserve Bank and the Central Government. A deadlock had been created making it impossible for the plaintiff Bank to get any final decision from the Reserve Bank and the Central Government.