The Madras High Court Bench here on Tuesday found it difficult to accept the submission of Assistant Solicitor General (ASG) G.R. Swaminathan that Section 25 of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 empowers the Centre to approve the design of currency notes, and hence, Devanagiri numerals found in the new Rs. 2,000 notes could also be considered as a design element.
When a Division Bench of Justices S. Nagamuthu and M.V. Muralidaran pointed out that the contention could mean that even Japanese numerals could be printed on Indian currency notes, the ASG said: “Why not? Every currency note has so many design elements. Also, the Devanagiri numerals have been used only in addition to international system of Indian numerals and not alone.”
He made the submission in reply to a public interest litigation petition filed by ‘Agri’ K.P.T. Ganesan, former chairman of Tamil Nadu State Agricultural Marketing Board, to declare the recently introduced Rs. 2,000 notes as invalid since, according to him, the law does not permit use of Devanagiri numerals in currency notes to denote the denomination of those notes.
Opposing the PIL plea, the ASG said that the use of Devanagiri numerals was not de hors but in tune with Article 343 (2) of the Constitution which permits use of Devanagiri numerals in addition to the international system of Indian numerals for official purposes of the Union, provided the President had issued a notification within 15 years from the date of commencement of the Constitution.
ASG seeks time
When the judges wanted to know if any such notification had been issued, the ASG sought time to get instructions from the Union Finance Ministry and the RBI on the issue. “Even otherwise, my second leg of argument would be that it (Devanagiri numeral in Rs. 2,000 note) is a design. There are several designs in currency notes. This is one of them,” he added.
Finding it hard to accept his argument, Mr. Justice Nagamuthu said: “Every currency note carries a promise from the RBI Governor that the bearer shall be paid the amount mentioned in the note. Therefore, we will have to examine whether the use of Devanagiri numerals will make the promise void, and on that score, whether the notes will become invalidated.”
The judge further stated that either a notification should have been issued within 15 years from the commencement of the Constitution on January 26, 1950 as required under Article 343 (2) of the Constitution or the Centre should have enacted a legislation on the lines of the Official Languages Act, 1963 permitting the use of Devanagiri numerals for official purposes.
“As far as the use of Devanagiri script is concerned, there is no difficulty. You are authorised to use the script since Hindi is our official language. The problem is only with numerals. The Official Languages Act has no provision for use of numerals but the Constitution provides for it subject to issuance of a notification,” the judge said and gave time to the ASG till Monday to find out if any such notification had been issued.
Agreeing to it, the ASG said: “I’ll find and produce and then argue on design.”
Wants to know whether a notification has been issued for use of Devanagiri numerals
