The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea challenging the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and State Bank of India (SBI) notifications that permit exchange of the withdrawn Rs 2,000 notes without any identity proof.
A bench of CJI D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice P.S. Narasimha dismissed the special leave petition filed by former BJP spokesperson and lawyer Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, saying that the decision fell within the ambit of executive governance and courts should not intervene in such cases.
Earlier, the Delhi High Court on May 29 dismissed the PIL filed by Upadhyay observing that the 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.
“In the considered opinion of this court, the present PIL is devoid of merits,” the high court had said. It held that the decision of the government cannot be termed as “perverse or arbitrary or it encourages black money, money laundering, profiteering or it abets corruption.”
Before the high court, RBI’s counsel senior advocate Parag P. Tripathi contended that it is well-settled that courts should not normally interfere with the policies of the government.
In his PIL, Upadhyay said that the notifications published by the RBI and SBI on May 19 and 20 were arbitrary and offend Article 14 of Constitution of India. He had also sought a direction to the RBI and the SBI to make sure that Rs 2,000 notes were deposited in respective bank accounts only, so that people having black money and disproportionate assets could be identified.
The Rs 2,000 denomination banknotes were introduced in November, 2016 to meet the currency requirement of the economy in an expeditious manner after the withdrawal of legal tender status of all Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 banknotes in circulation at that time.
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