HC nixes plea against exchange of Rs. 2000 notes “without id-proof”

It further said that six years since 2016 the Government has now decided to withdraw Rs.2000 banknotes from circulation “which is not being used commonly” while they remain to be “legal tender”.

It said that in order to “facilitate” the exchange of such notes with other denomination banknotes, the Government has “given a window of four months to the citizens” and in order to avoid any “inconvenience” to them, the Government is “not insisting on” providing any kind of identification.

“Therefore, it cannot be said that the decision of the Government is perverse or arbitrary or it encourages black money, money laundering, profiteering or it abets corruption,” the bench held.

It also noted that it is a “well settled” principle that decisions of the government of India on “economic policies” are not ordinarily interfered with by the Courts “unless” the decision is “manifestly arbitrary”.

The court said that since it is purely a policy decision, “Courts should not sit as an Appellate Authority over the decision taken by the Government”. “In the considered opinion of this Court, the present PIL is devoid of merits,” the HC said dismissing the plea.

The plea filed by petitioner and advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay stated that a large amount of the currency had reached either in an individual’s locker or has “been hoarded by the separatists, terrorists, Maoists, drug smugglers, mining mafias & corrupt people”. The plea further submitted that cash transaction in high value currency is the main source of corruption and is used for illegal activities like terrorism, naxalism, separatism, radicalism, gambling, smuggling, money laundering, kidnapping, extortion, bribing and dowry, etc. and the RBI and SBI should ensure that Rs 2000 banknotes are deposited in respective bank accounts only.