New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Monday dismissed a plea challenging permission to exchange of Rs 2,000 currency notes without any requisition slip and identity proof. A bench of Chief Justice Satish Kumar Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad rejected the petition, which has challenged the notifications by the RBI and SBI.
A detailed order is awaited.
Petitioner and advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay submitted that a large amount of currency has reached either an individual's locker or has “been hoarded by separatists, terrorists, Maoists, drug smugglers, mining mafias and corrupt people”. The plea submitted that the notifications were arbitrary, irrational and offend Article 14 of the Constitution. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has defended before the high court its notification, saying it is not demonetisation but a statutory exercise.
SBI in its guidelines issued to all its branches said that no form or identity proof should be asked for from customers to exchange Rs 2,000 currency notes, even as it underlined the one-time limit of Rs 20,000 for depositing or exchanging the banknote. Other banks, including private sector banks and other public sector banks, could ask customers of other banks to submit identification proof.
The RBI’s notification stated that people have been given time from May 23 to September 30 to exchange or deposit Rs 2,000 notes so that these can be withdrawn from circulation. These notes will continue to be legal tender even after the September 30 deadline, and can be used for transactions, the central bank had clarified.
(With PTI inputs)
