HC reserves order on plea challenging RBI decision to withdraw Rs 2,000 notes

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday reserved the order on Public Interest Litigation PIL seeking direction to quash the RBI notification dated May 19 2023 whereby the RBI has taken a decision to withdraw the Rs 2000 denomination banknotes from circulation under the clean note policy or otherwiseThe Division bench of Justice Satish Chander Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad on Tuesday reserved the order in the matter after noting down the submissions of petitioner and respondents The RBI has opposed the plea stating that Rs 2000 note continues to be legal tenderThe same bench on Monday dismissed the plea challenging the Reserve Bank of India RBIs permission for exchanging Rs 2000 currency notes without any identity proof following the withdrawal of the highestvalue currency notes from circulationPlea sought direction to RBI and Union Finance Ministry to issue notificationcircular for public at large clarifying the estimated life span of each denomination banknote presently in circulation and also estimated timeyear of being withdrawn from circulation in future by RBI under the Clean Note Policy or otherwisePetitioner Rajneesh Bhaskar Gupta through plea submitted that the RBI has no independent power under the Reserve Bank of India Act 1934 to direct the nonissue or the discontinuance of issue of bank notes of any denominational values and the said power is vested only with the Central Government under section 24 2 of the RBI Act 1934Plea further submitted that neither impugned notificationcircular dated May 19 2023 of RBI does not speak that Central Government under section 24 2 of the RBI Act 1934 has taken decision of withdrawal of denomination of Rs 2000 from circulation nor any such notification has been issued by the Central Government so far regarding withdrawal of denomination of Rs 2000 from circulationPlea further submitted that as per the reasoning given by the present RBI Governor if the estimated life span of denomination of Rs2000 is about 45 years then all other banknotes like Rs 500 Rs 200 Rs 100 Rs 50 Rs 20 Rs10 Rs 5 etc printed in the same year of banknote of Rs2000 must have same estimated life span and are presumed to be withdrawn under the same Clean Note Policy of RBI at any time without considering the consequenceshardship of the same upon the public at largeThe small vendorshopkeeper has stopped taking Rs 2000 banknotes after the RBI Notificationcircular of in question and not considering that the legal validity of the said note is remained valid till 30th September 2023 which creates an unprecedented situation for public at large having such notes and only remedy is left to move to bank in hisher official working hours for depositingexchanging the said Rs 2000 banknote stated the petitionA thousand crores have been spent from the public exchequer ie Tax payer money as a printing cost for printing good quality with better safety measures denomination of Rs 2000 in tune of Rs 67 lakh crore after demonetization in the year 2016 which will be wasted if such banknotes are withdrawn from the circulation unnecessary without any valid scientific reasons in the interest of the economy of the country read the pleaThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever