In a world of fake news and viral WhatsApp messages, you may end up believing the rumour that currency notes that have something scribbled across them are no longer legal tender. Your heart may sink if an ATM spits out yet another note with “Sonam Gupta bewafa hai” (Sonam Gupta is unfaithful) written on it.
Don’t believe such rumours. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has clarified that currency notes with scribbles are legal tender. “There is no RBI instruction to anyone not to accept any currency note with scribbling on it even though we do, from time to time, keep appealing to people not to write/staple/fold currency notes as these things lessen the life of currency notes,” the central bank said in an email to Mint.
