The Supreme Court of India on Monday dismissed a plea filed by a lawyer against the Reserve Bank of India's decision to allow the exchange of Rs 2,000 notes without any requirement for requisition slip or identity proof. The lawyer claimed that anyone including criminals and terrorists could exchange the notes without ID proof.
An appeal that challenged the Delhi High Court's verdict dismissing a Public Interest Litigation against the Reserve Bank of India notification for permitting the exchange of Rs 2,000 currency notes without any requisition slip or identity proof was not entertained in the Supreme Court on Monday as they said it was an executive policy decision.
The appeal was filed by lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay in his own capacity and a bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice P S Narasimha dismissed it today.
The bench said “This is the matter of executive policy decision,” while dismissing the appeal.
On May 29, the Delhi High Court dismissed the PIL challenging the notifications enabling the exchange of Rs 2,000 denomination currency notes without any requisition slip and ID proof.
According to the high court, this decision was taken to avoid inconvenience to the citizens and they also mentioned that this could not sit as an appellate authority on a policy decision.
Reportedly, the high court had maintained it cannot be said that the government's decision is perverse or arbitrary or it encourages black money, money laundering, profiteering or abets corruption.
The appeal filed by Upadhyay was against the high court decision.
Upadhyay said the Rs 2,000 banknotes are being exchanged without any requisition slip and ID proof like an Aadhaar card by criminals and terrorists also.