Man sent to jail by family court in demonetisation aftermath

In a curious fallout of the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, a 70-year-old man was on Tuesday sent to jail for a month 

by a family court which refused to accept payment of alimony of Rs 2.25 lakh to his former wife in the now-defunct notes.

Additional judge Shyamal Kumar Biswas of the Family Court here refused to accept the petitioner’s logic that the Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes could be deposited in banks till December 30 and said that these have ceased to be legal tender from November 9.

The petitioner, Bijoy Seal, had been arrested on November 8 on his former wife’s complaint of prolonged default in payment of alimony, amounting to Rs 2.25 lakh.

Seal, who was an engineer by profession and a resident of College Square in north Kolkata, was produced before the court on Tuesday after his counsel prayed that he would pay the due amount in full.