Discuss the 'Public Debt Functions' of the Reserve Bank of India as per Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934.

The Parliament of India enacted the Government Securities Act 2006 (GS Act) with an objective to consolidate and amend the law relating to Government securities and its management by the Reserve Bank of India. Government securities have been defined to mean a security created and issued by the Government for the purpose of raising a public loan or for any other purpose as may be notified by the Government in the official Gazette and having one of the forms mentioned in section 3 of the GS Act, which include a government promissory note payable to or to the order of a certain person, a bearer bond payable to bearer, a stock, or a bond held in a bond ledger account. The GS Act accordingly applies to Government securities created and issued by the Central Government or a State Government. The GS Act prescribes the procedure and modalities to be followed by RBI in the management of public debt and also confers various powers on RBI including the power to determine the title to a government security if there exists any doubt in the opinion of RBI. Further, Section 18 of the GS Act provides that no order made by RBI under this Act shall be called in question by any court for the reason stated therein. Prior to the enactment of GS Act, the said public debt functions of the RBI were governed under the provisions of Public Debt Act 1944. However, the enactment of the GS Act has not fully repealed the Public Debt Act 1944. This is evident from Section 31 of the GS Act which states that the Public Debt Act 1944 shall cease to apply to the Government securities to which this Act applies.