Supreme Court Again Rejects Ashwini Upadhyay's Plea For Urgent Listing Of Plea Related To Exchange Of Rs 2000 Currency Notes

The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a third mentioning made by Advocate Ashwini Upadhyay seeking urgent listing for his his petition challenging Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and State Bank of India's (SBI) notifications that permit exchange of Rs. 2000 currency notes without requirement of any identity proof.

A Vacation Bench comprising Justice Aniruddha Bose and Justice Rajesh Bindal pointed out that last week, another bench had already passed an order refusing urgent listing of the matter during vacations. The present bench said that it cannot modify the order passed by a coordinate bench.

Seeking urgent listing, Upadhyaya said :

"RBI Governor said that there was 1.8 lakh crores exchanged in 10 days...This is all without identity proof...entire black money of criminals, naxals, mafias will be exchanged

However, the bench,  reminded him that since the coordinate bench had already asked him to mention this before a regular bench, the vacation bench could not hear the matter now. Justice Bose said–

"We perused the report of the registrar. In our opinion, the direction of the vacation bench cannot be varied by us. Let the matter be placed before CJI after summer vacations."

On June 1 2023, Upadhyay had mentioned the same matter before the Supreme Court vacation bench comprising Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Justice KV Viswanathan. The bench had refused to entertain his urgent mentioning stating that it would not take up such matters during the vacations and allowed Upadhyay to mention the matter once the Apex Court had resumed post the summer vacations. On June 7 2023, when he mentioned the matter before Justice Aniruddha Bose and Justice Rajesh Bindal, the bench had asked him how he could approach the court again when his matter was already declined to be listed before a vacation bench. However, when he insisted that the court had not declined to hear it in vacations, the bench decided to peruse the report of the Registrar on the same. 

Insisting upon the urgency of the matter Upadhyay argued–

"This is violating the rights of the taxpayers, 10 crore people who pay taxes."

To this, Justice Bose said–

"Everyone pays taxes."

When Upadhyay argued that it was only 10 crore people who paid taxes, Justice Bose corrected him and remarked–

"That's income tax. GST and other such taxes everyone pays."

Continuing his argument Upadhyay said–

"A matter less important than this- when the Allahabad High Court passed that mangalik order, a suo moto cognisance was taken for that."

Upadhyay was referring to the Supreme Court's stay of an order passed by the Allahabad High Court which directed the Head of Astrology Department, Lucknow University to determine if an alleged rape victim is a Mangali/Mangalik by examining her Kundali.

At this juncture, Justice Bindal interjected and said that–

"The issue is that a bench has already passed an order in this."

Upadhyay said–

"Registrar can be asked to seek directions from the CJI."

However, the bench had made its decision. Justice Bose remarked–

"We appreciate your concern but we can't do anything. Sorry."

Justice Bindal added–

"Matter has to end somewhere. Sorry."

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