Supreme Court Refuses Urgent Listing Of Plea Against RBI's Decision Over ₹2000 Currency Note Exchange

The Supreme Court today refused to list for urgent hearing a plea challenging the notifications enabling the exchange of Rs 2,000 denomination currency notes without any requisition slip and ID proof.

A vacation bench of Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Justice K V Vishwanathan took note of the submissions for an urgent hearing of lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay and said it will not be taking up such pleas during the summer vacation.

"We are not taking up these kinds of cases during the summer vacation," the bench said, adding the plea can be mentioned before a bench headed by the Chief Justice of India.

Seeking urgent listing of the plea, the lawyer said the Rs 2000 banknotes are being exchanged without any requisition slip and ID proof like an Aadhaar card by criminals and terrorists also.

In a short span of time, Rs 50,000 crore have been exchanged in banks by returning banknotes of Rs 2000 denomination, he claimed, adding the delay in the hearing would lead to an exchange of all black monies in banks.

Upadhyay has filed an appeal in the apex court against the May 29 decision of the Delhi High Court dismissing his PIL challenging the notifications by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the State Bank of India (SBI) allowing the exchange of Rs 2,000 banknotes without having to furnish any document.

On May 19, the RBI announced the withdrawal of Rs 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 Rs 2,000 denomination will, however, continue to be legal tender, the RBI said in a statement.

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

With PTI Inputs