Wedding withdrawal cap stays, says Delhi High Court
The court says it will not interfere unless the policy is unconstitutional or contrary to statutory provisions or arbitrary or irrational.
New Delhi: Giving its order on a demonetisation litigation, the Delhi high court said the scope of judicial inquiry would be limited if the government is violating fundamental rights of the citizen. The court said this while dismissing the plea that sought relaxation of withdrawal limit for wedding expenses. Till now, the court had not given any order on various pleas seeking relief from the move.
Refusing to interfere in the Centre’s decision to put a Rs 2.5 lakh wedding withdrawal cap, the court said that there is “no restriction” on “non-cash” transaction. It also held that the policy decisions are taken by the government after considering expert opinion and hence, there was very limited scope for their judicial review.
“This court will not interfere unless the policy is unconstitutional or contrary to statutory provisions or arbitrary or irrational or in abuse of power, since the policy decisions are taken based on expert knowledge.”
And the courts are normally not equipped to question the correctness of the same.”
“The scope of judicial enquiry is therefore confined to the question whether the decision taken by the government is against any statutory provision or it violates the fundamental rights of the citizens or is opposed to the provisions of the Constitution,” a bench of Chief Justice G. Rohini and Justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal said.
It said that the restriction on the inflow of liquid cash may have resulted in some inconvenience but there was no restriction at all with regard to the use of “any-non cash method of operating bank accounts of a person such as payment through cheques, demand drafts, credit or debit cards, mobile wallets and electronic fund transfer mechanisms or the like”.
It dismissed the plea of advocate Birender Sangwan, who had sought a relaxation on the decision to put a cap of Rs 2.5 lakh on withdrawal for wedding.
The HC also agreed with the contention of the Centre on the circulation of fake currency and said in its eight-page-order that the “notification itself shows that the said decision was taken having regard to the fact that fake currency notes of the existing series of the value of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 have been largely in circulation and it has been found difficult to easily identify genuine banknotes from the fake ones.”