Delhi High Court: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday reserved judgment on a public interest litigation challenging Reserve Bank of India and State Bank of India’s notifications that permit exchange of Rs. 2000 currency notes without requirement of any identity proof. “We will pass appropriate orders,” said the division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad. The plea has been moved by BJP leader and Advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay seeking to declare the notifications as arbitrary and against Article 14 of Constitution of India. The impugned notifications have been published on May 19 and 20. Senior Advocate Parag P Tripathi appearing for RBI opposed the plea and said that it must be dismissed with exemplary costs. “This is not demonetisation..This is a statutory exercise. Reliance was made on RK Garg v. Union of India and Small Scale Manufacturers Association v. Union of India. The respondents in the plea are RBI, SBI and Union Ministries of Home Affairs and Finance. ASG Chetan Sharma represented the Union of India. “Recently, it was announced by the Centre that every family has AADHAAR Card and Bank Account. Therefore, why RBI is permitting to exchange Rs. 2000 banknotes without obtaining identity proof. It is also necessary to state that 80 Crore BPL families receive free grains. It means 80 crore Indians rarely use Rs. 2,000/- banknotes. Therefore, petitioner also seeks direction to RBI and SBI to take steps to ensure that Rs. 2000 banknotes are deposited in bank account only,” the plea states.
