The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Monday adjourned to Tuesday a public interest litigation petition seeking to declare the newly-introduced Rs.2,000 currency notes invalid since they contain the numerals in Devanagiri script also in addition to the international form of Indian numerals.
A Division Bench of Justices S. Nagamuthu and M.V. Muralidaran adjourned the hearing after directing a Central Government Standing Counsel to obtain instructions from the Union Finance Ministry on the petitioner’s claim that the law does not permit use of Devanagiri form of numerals in currency notes.
‘Agri’ K.P.T. Ganesan, former chairman of Tamil Nadu State Agricultural Marketing Board, had filed the case by relying upon Article 343 of the Constitution which states that international form of Indian numerals should be used for official purposes though the President may authorise the use of Devanagiri numerals for a period of 15 years from the commencement of the Constitution.
“I state that the Constitution came into force on January 26, 1950... But within 15 years from the date of such commencement, the President did not order authorising the use of Devanagiri form of numerals. Even in the Officials Languages Act, 1963, there is no provision for there is no provision for the use of Devanagiri numerals,” the petitioner claimed in his affidavit.
Though he had also claimed that the Centre had no authority to issue currency notes in the denomination of Rs.2,000; the judges rejected that claim by referring to Section 24 of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 which authorises issue of bank notes of any denomination up to the value of Rs.10,000.
