Exchange of Rs 2,000 notes: Supreme Court refuses urgent hearing of PIL challenging RBI's decision

Upadhyay pleaded that so far, Rs 1.80 lakh crore worth Rs 2,000 currency notes by mafia, criminals and smugglers have been exchanged

The Supreme Court on Friday declined a plea by BJP leader and advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay for urgent listing of a petition challenging the Delhi High Court's May 29 judgement which allowed exchange of Rs 2,000 currency notes without any identification slip.

A bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Rajesh Bindal said no urgent hearing could be granted in view of the previous coordinate bench's June 1 order allowing the petitioner to mention it before the Chief Justice of India after the summer vacations.

Upadhyay said there was no order as such but only oral observations. He pleaded that so far, Rs 1.80 lakh crore worth Rs 2,000 currency notes by mafia, criminals and smugglers have already been exchanged. He said this is gross violation of the right to equality by honest tax payers.

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The bench, however, said after the GST, every citizen has become tax payers in the country. Upadhyay insisted by the time the court reopened, the matter would become infructuous.

He asked why can't the Rs 2,000 notes be deposited in bank accounts after due verification.

He also pointed out the Allahabad High Court's order for examining 'kundali' of a girl in a rape case on pretext of marriage was taken up by the Supreme Court suo motu on Saturday June 3. "I want to ask myself if the currency notes exchange is not even that important," he questioned.

The court, however, again said in view of the report of the registry and the order by the previous, it can't order for listing of the matter.

"We perused the report of registrar. In our opinion, the direction of the vacation bench cannot be varied by us," the bench said.

Upadhyay said this was very unfortunate.

On this the bench told him, this is court not a public platform and there has to be some decorum.

On June 1, a vacation bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and K V Viswanathan had then told advocate Ashwini Upadhyay, appearing-in-person, that the court is not taking up these kinds of cases during summer vacation.

"You can always make a mention to the Chief Justice of India after the vacations,” the bench had said.

In his plea, the petitioner contended the High Court has failed to appreciate that the RBI notification of May 19, 2023 and the SBI,'s of May 20, 2023, which permitted exchange of Rs 2,000 banknotes without even obtaining any requisition slip and identity proof, were manifestly arbitrary and irrational and therefore violated Articles 14 of the Constitution.