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Section 5. Prohibition on holding transferring or receiving specified bank notes

On and from the appointed day, no person shall, knowingly or voluntarily, hold, transfer or receive any specified bank note:

Provided that nothing contained in this section shall prohibit the holding of specified bank notes—

(a) by any person—

(i) up to the expiry of the grace period; or

(ii) after the expiry of the grace period,—

(A) not more than ten notes in total, irrespective of the denomination; or

(B) not more than twenty-five notes for the purposes of study, research or numismatics;

(b) by the Reserve Bank or its agencies, or any other person authorised by the Reserve Bank;

(c) by any person on the direction of a court in relation to any case pending in the court.

1[(d) by the law enforcement agencies, such as the Central Board of Direct Taxes, Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Enforcement Directorate on production of the documents authorising such seizure or confiscation, as the case may be.]

1Superscript markers show text inserted or substituted by a later amendment. The Act carries the markers without the footnotes they refer to, so they are shown without a target.

How courts have applied section 5