A plea was filed in the Supreme Court on Wednesday against the Delhi High Court's May 29 judgement allowing exchange of Rs 2,000 currency notes without any identification slip.
Advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, who filed the PIL, contended that the High Court has failed to appreciate that the RBI and SBI's notifications issued on May 19 and 20 respectively gave an opportunity to legalise illegal money, and therefore was manifestly arbitrary, irrational, and violative of the fundamental right to equality.
The High Court had on Monday dismissed the PIL, saying that this is a purely policy decision related to withdrawal of banknotes and it cannot be said to be perverse or arbitrary or that it encouraged black money, money laundering, profiteering or corruption.
In his special leave petition, the petitioner said the High Court had failed to appreciate that the RBI admits in the notification that the total value of Rs 2,000 banknotes in circulation have declined from Rs 6.73 lakh crore to Rs 3.62 lakh crore.
"It means Rs 3.11 lakh crore has reached individuals locker and the rest has otherwise been hoarded," he said.
The petitioner also claimed the notifications were contrary to the aims and objects of the Prevention of Corruption Act, Benami Transactions Act, Money Laundering Act, Lokpal Act, CVC Act, Fugitive Economic Offenders Act and the Black Money Act.
He also stated around 30 crore families had 130 Crore Aadhaar Cards. Similarly, there are 225 crore bank accounts, including 48 crore Jana Dhan accounts. "Therefore, granting the permission to exchange Rs 2,000 banknotes without depositing them in the bank account or even without obtaining any form of slip and identity proof is manifestly arbitrary, irrational and thus violates Article 14," the plea said.
(Published 31 May 2023, 13:42 IST)
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