NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court is likely to pronounce on Monday its order on a PIL challenging the RBI’s decision to withdraw Rs 2,000 denomination banknotes from circulation.A bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad had reserved its order on the PIL on May 30 after hearing the counsels for the petitioner and the RBI.
Petitioner Rajneesh Bhaskar Gupta has contended that the RBI has no power to withdraw Rs 2,000 currency notes from circulation and only the Centre could have taken a decision in this regard. In his petition, the petitioner submitted that the RBI has no independent power to direct the non-issue or discontinuance of the issue of banknotes of any denominational values and this power is vested only with the Centre under section 24 (2) of the RBI Act, 1934.
Regarding the high court’s May 29 judgment on a PIL which had challenged the notifications by the RBI and SBI enabling an exchange of Rs 2,000 banknotes without requisition slip and identity proof, Agarwal had said that was a completely different issue. The plea was opposed by RBI which said it was only withdrawing Rs 2,000 notes from circulation which was a ‘currency management exercise’ and a matter of economic policy.
Earlier, the high court had dismissed the plea by lawyer Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, which claimed notifications by the RBI and SBI enabling the exchange of Rs 2,000 banknotes without proof were arbitrary and against the laws enacted to curb corruption, saying it has been done to avoid inconvenience to citizens and the court cannot sit as an appellate authority on a policy decision. The high court has maintained it cannot be said that the government’s decision is perverse or arbitrary or it encourages black money, money laundering, or abets corruption.