NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Monday dismissed a plea against the recent notifications issued by the Reserve Bank of India and State Bank of India permitting the exchange of Rs 2,000 currency notes without obtaining any identity proof and requisition slip.
Dismissing the public interest litigation (PIL) moved by BJP leader Adv Ashwini Upadhyay, the division bench headed by Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma said the plea is ‘devoid of merits.
“In order to facilitate the exchange of Rs 2,000 denomination banknotes with other denomination banknotes, the government has given a window of four months to the citizens and in order to avoid inconvenience to citizens, the government is not insisting on providing any kind of identification,” the bench also comprising Justice Subramonium Prasad noted in the order.
The high court pointed out that the government’s decision ‘is purely a policy decision and courts should not sit as an Appellate Authority over the decision taken by the government.’ Upadhyay submitted that out of the total denomination of Rs 2,000 banknotes, at present Rs 3.62 lakh crores banknotes are in circulation and are not being commonly used for transactions.
He argued that these notes are primarily black money ‘hoarded by the separatists, terrorists, Maoists, drug smugglers, mining mafias and corrupt people.’ The high court said the government’s decision is only to withdraw Rs 2,000 denomination banknotes from circulation for the reason that the purpose of issuing these notes has been achieved, which was to meet the currency requirement of the economy in an expeditious manner in November 2016 when all Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denomination banknotes ceased to remain legal tender.
“Six years after the said decision, the government has now decided to withdraw Rs 2,000 denomination banknotes from circulation which is not being used commonly. Banknotes of Rs 2,000 shall continue to be a legal tender and this policy is only for the exchange of banknotes having a denomination of Rs 2,000 with other banknotes,” it was noted. In the previous hearing, the RBI submitted that the withdrawal of Rs 2,000 notes is not demonetisation but a statutory exercise.
