Major relief for Modi govt from Delhi High Court as it refuses to go into correctness of Centre's demonetisation policy

The Modi government on Friday got relief from the Delhi High Court which refused to go into the correctness of the Centre’s demonetisation policy and issue any direction for removing the cap on daily withdrawal from banks.

“Virtually by way of this writ petition you are challenging the notification on demonetisation. We cannot go into it as the Supreme Court is already looking into it,” a bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice V K Rao said.

The petitioner had sought quashing of a clause of the Centre’s notification putting restriction on withdrawal limit.

The order assumes importance as the apex court in the last two hearings had refused to restrain the high courts across the country from entertaining petitions against the demonetisation decision, saying that the public can get immediate relief from them.

The apex court today agreed with the Centre’s plea to hear its transfer petition and other matters connected to the demonetisation on December 2.

Noting that the apex court is already seized of the matter, the high court disposed of the PIL by Ashok Sharma, a businessman, who had urged the court for relief on the ground that the Centre’s decision to put a cap on weekly withdrawal of Rs 24,000 is “affecting right to livelihood” of the people at large.

Under the earlier clause 2 (VI), the weekly withdrawal limit from the banks was Rs 20,000, while the daily limit was Rs 10,000. Later, the weekly limit was increased to Rs 24,000 and the daily limit was scrapped. From ATMs, the daily limit is Rs 2,500.

Yesterday, the Centre had extended till December 15 the facility of using old Rs 500 notes in public utilities and included more services like mobile recharge but stopped the over-the-counter exchange of defunct currencies and use of Rs 1,000 notes.

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