Don’t allow exchange of ₹2000 notes without identity proof: Petition in Delhi HC

Ashwini Upadhyay said the decision to permit the exchange of ₹2,000 banknotes without a requisition slip and identity proof was arbitrary and irrational

NEW DELHI: A Delhi lawyer has filed a petition in the Delhi high court challenging the decision of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the State Bank of India (SBI) to allow people to exchange ₹2,000 banknotes without submitting any identity documents or filling up a requisition form.

Lawyer and Bharatiya Janata Paty (BJP) leader Ashwini Upadhyay said the decision to permit the exchange of ₹2,000 banknotes without any requisition slip and identity proof was arbitrary, irrational and should be struck down

Upadhyay’s petition said since most Indians had been issued an Aadhaar number and every Indian family had a bank account, there was no reason why the authorities should not require people to produce their identity documents to exchange ₹2,000 banknotes.

The petition was mentioned before a bench of chief justice Satish Chandra Sharma and justice Subramonium Prasad. It will be taken up on Tuesday.

“Recently, it was announced by the Centre that every family has an Aadhaar card and bank account. Then, why RBI is permitting to exchange ₹2000 banknotes without obtaining identity proof. It is also necessary to state that 80 crore BPL families receive free grains. It means 80 crore Indians rarely use Rs. 2,000 banknotes, “ the petition said.

According to official estimates, the total value of ₹2,000 denomination banknotes in circulation has declined from ₹6.73 trillion at its peak as on 31 March 2018, accounting for 37.3% of the notes in circulation to ₹3.62 trillion, constituting only 10.8% of the notes in circulation on 31 March 2023.

Upadhyay sought to reason that the ₹2,000 currency notes were mostly “hoarded by the separatists, terrorists, maoists, drug smugglers, mining mafias and corrupt people” and that the authorities should identify the people who exchange a large number of currency notes.

Disclaimer: This Article is auto-generated from the HT news service.