Writing on currency notes

How many of us are guilty of having written something or the other on a currency note? I bet the number would not be small. I for sure have been guilty of writing on notes when I was young. We friends had this game running for us where we were supposed to write our name or something to uniquely identify the note and then set it afloat in the market. We had a superstition that it it came back to you one of our wishes would be granted. I got none back!

Why I have picked this up today has a good reasoning. I was just rolling through my facebook updates when I saw an article that was there to spread awareness that writing on currency notes is actually a crime. I was surprised because I have seen lots of bank officials writing the total number of notes on the note at the top of the lot. So I started reading about the same and I was actually surprised to learn that it is indeed a crime. To add to this stapling the notes together is also not subscribed by the RBI. In November 2001, the central bank had stated that writing on the watermark window of bank notes is punishable under Section 35A of the Banking Regulation Act 1949. It also ordered to stop stapling fresh, reissuable or non-issuable note packets. In 2002, RBI had pulled up a public sector bank for continuing with the stapling practice.

 

When I tried to run back in time, I realised that there was a transition period where the bundles of notes started coming with a rubber band to keep them together as opposed to being stapled. This has made me aware and I know what to do when next time someone asks me to write my name or contact details on the notes. This is a common practice that the organisations follow in order to be able to track the origin of the note just in case it turns out to be fake. But I am not going to fall in the trap and commit a crime. Also being a student of law I very well understand that Ignorantia juris non excusat (ignorance of the law is no excuse) so I would not be able to defend myself on the context that I did not know about it.