The Delhi High Court dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition on Monday challenging the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) decision to withdraw ₹2,000 currency notes from circulation.
A division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad rejected the plea.
The petitioner, advocate Rajneesh Bhaskar Gupta, argued that the RBI lacked the independent authority, as per the RBI Act, to discontinue banknotes. Gupta claimed that only the Central government possessed the power to take such action, and there was no evidence of any government order to that effect.
It is worth noting that the High Court had previously rejected a plea on May 29 by Ashwini Upadhyay, a leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), challenging the RBI’s decision to exchange these notes without requiring identity proof.
The Court stated that the ₹2,000 notes had fulfilled their purpose and that the withdrawal was a policy matter beyond the court’s interference.
The judgment explicitly mentioned that the government’s decision was not arbitrary, encouraged illegal activities, or facilitated corruption.
Upadhyay subsequently approached the Supreme Court with his plea, which is currently pending. Last month, the Supreme Court declined to expedite the matter for listing.
