Supreme Court seeks report from registry on urgent listing of plea challenging RBI decision on INR 2,000 note exchange

NEW DELHI — The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought a report from its registry on the issue of urgent listing of a plea challenging the notifications enabling the exchange of INR 2,000 currency notes without any requisition slip and ID proof.

A vacation bench of justices Aniruddha Bose and Rajesh Bindal passed the order after petitioner advocate Ashwini Upadhyay mentioned the matter, seeking an urgent hearing.

On June 1, the top court refused to list for an urgent hearing of Upadhyay’s plea challenging the notifications and said it would not be taking up such pleas during the summer vacation.

Upadhyay on Wednesday submitted that the issue is very important as Maoists, terrorists and separatists were exchanging money and there are media reports saying notes worth INR 80,000 crore have been exchanged.

“We cannot go by media reports. You mention on Friday, meanwhile, let us see the registry report,” the bench said.

When the matter has already been mentioned, how can the case be mentioned again, the apex court asked.

Seeking urgent listing of the plea, the lawyer had earlier said the INR 2,000 banknotes were being exchanged by criminals and terrorists without any requisition slip and ID proof such as Aadhaar cards.

In a short span of time, INR 50,000 crore has been exchanged in banks by returning banknotes of INR 2,000 denomination, he claimed, adding that the delay in hearing would lead to the exchange of all black monies in banks.

Upadhyay filed the appeal in the top court against the May 29 decision of the Delhi High Court dismissing his PIL challenging the notifications by the Reserve Bank of India and the State Bank of India allowing the exchange of INR 2,000 banknotes without having to furnish any document.

On May 19, the RBI announced the withdrawal of the INR 2,000 currency notes from circulation and said existing notes in circulation can either be deposited in bank accounts or exchanged by September 30.

The banknotes in INR 2,000 denomination will, however, continue to be legal tender, the RBI said in a statement.

In order to ensure operational convenience and avoid disruption of regular activities of bank branches, the RBI said the exchange of INR 2,000 notes into banknotes of other denominations can be made up to a limit of INR 20,000 at a time at any bank starting from May 23.