The Delhi High Court on July 3 dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) challenging the Reserve Bank of India (RBI’s) decision to withdraw ₹2000 denomination currency notes from circulation.
A bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad rejected the plea filed by Rajneesh Bhaskar Gupta.
This is the second petition filed before the High Court in connection with the RBI’s decision to withdraw ₹2000 denomination banknotes from circulation.
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In May, the High Court had rejected a previous PIL seeking a direction to the government to not allow exchange of ₹2000 banknotes, without obtaining any requisition slip and identity proof.
“This decision of the Government is purely a policy decision and Courts should not sit as an Appellate Authority over the decision taken by the government,” the high court had said.
Mr. Gupta, in his plea, contended that RBI has no independent power to direct non-issuance or discontinuance of banknotes of any denominational value and this power is vested only with the Centre under section 24 (2) of the RBI Act, 1934.
The petition stated the RBI notification gave no other reason except “Clean Note Policy” for the “big arbitrary decision of withdrawing the Rs 2,000 denomination banknotes from circulation without analysis of the expected problems of the public at large”.
“RBI has not cleared so far what is the benefit to the RBI or National Economy after withdrawing the denomination ₹2,000 banknote from circulation, however the hardship to the citizen of the country is very well known and seen during the demonetisation of denomination of ₹500 and ₹1,000 in the year 2016 and withdrawal of ₹2,000 is not much different from previous demonetisation,” the plea said.
The plea was opposed by RBI which said it was only withdrawing ₹2,000 notes from circulation which was a “currency management exercise” and a matter of economic policy.
