Supreme Court Dismisses PIL Alleging Exchange Of Currency Defaced By Kashmiri Separatists At RBI Branch; Notes Petitioner Suppressed Facts

The Supreme Court today dismissed a public interest litigation seeking CBI enquiry into the Jammu Regional Branch of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) where defaced Indian currencies worth Rs.30 crores were allegedly exchanged by a separatist group in 2013.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh passed the order, noting from the respondent-authorities' response that the petitioner was a dismissed employee of the Bank and the said fact was suppressed in the petition. It was clarified that the issues, if required to be adjudicated, shall be gone into in an appropriate case.

During the hearing, Senior Advocate Jaideep Gupta (for RBI) submitted that the petitioner was a dismissed employee of the bank and there was no basis for his statement that an exchange of Rs.30 crores worth of defaced bank notes took place. "What the newspaper report said was that there is evidence of 7 notes being defaced...", he said.

The petitioner, appearing in person, submitted that Times of India, which published on the issue, is a reliable newspaper. In response to his argument that the RBI was denying the allegations after 5 years (since filing of the PIL), Justice Kant pointed out that the petitioner himself had not disclosed all relevant facts in the petition. The judge questioned as to where the petitioner had disclosed that he was a dismissed employee of the bank.

After the petitioner conceded that he was a dismissed employee of the bank, the bench passed its order refusing to entertain the petition. "We are not inclined to entertain this writ petition purportedly filed in public interest. The same is accordingly dismissed. However, the issues, if required to be adjudicated, shall be gone into in an appropriate case."

To recap, petitioner-Satish Bhardwaj filed the present petition in 2019, alleging that a Kashmiri separatist group named "Kashmir Graffiti" defaced and stamped anti-India slogans on Indian currencies and posted them on its social networking sites. Subsequently, the defaced bank notes, worth Rs 30 crores, were allowed to be exchanged by an RBI branch in Jammu Region.

According to the plea, the RBI Act and the RBI (Note Refund) Rules 2009 did not allow the bank to exchange defaced notes. The petitioner initially sought a response from authorities but to no avail.

As RBI failed to reply to his RTI queries, and CBI failed to act upon his representation, the petitioner approached the Supreme Court seeking a CBI probe against RBI for allowing the notes to be exchanged. In his petition, he stated,

"The act of Jammu Regional Branch office of RBI to exchange the defaced/imperfect Indian currency notes worth Rs 30 crore, that too which was done by a separatist group of Kashmir with a main aim of destabilizing peace and harmony in the region of J&K and to create an environment of tension and terror in the minds of common residents of the region is illegal and worthy of interference of this court."

When the matter came up in 2020, a bench comprising then CJI SA Bobde as well as Justices BR Gavai and Kant expressed that it involved "national interest" and asked SG Mehta to seek instructions. In November, 2024, considering the delay in filing of a response, the Court gave final opportunity to the Union to present its stance.

Case Title: SATISH BHARDWAJ v. UNION OF INDIA AND ORS., W.P.(Crl.) No. 249/2019