The Supreme Court recently refused to entertain a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking investigation against the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for allegedly exchanging currency notes worth Rs 30 crore defaced by a Kashmiri separatist group in 2013.
The Bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice N Kotiswar Singh passed the order on Friday after RBI apprised the Court that petitioner Satish Bhardwaj had suppressed the fact that he was a dismissed employee of the RBI.
The top court of the country noted that withholding material facts, such as the petitioner’s dismissal, undermined the credibility of the PIL.
Petitioner Satish Bhardwaj had moved the Apex Court in 2019 seeking a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the matter.
As per reports, a Kashmiri separatist group had issued a statement in 2013 on social media, announcing that it had defaced Indian currency notes worth around Rs 30 crore by stamping separatist slogans on it over the course of four months.
Bhardwaj claimed that these notes were exchanged by the Jammu Regional Branch of the RBI, in violation of the RBI Act and the RBI (Note Refund) Rules, 2009.
In 2020, while noting that the case involved sensitive issues, the Supreme Court sought a status report in the matter.
However, after Bhardwaj admitted to being a dismissed employee of the RBI, the Bench found it inappropriate to entertain the PIL further.
The Apex Court dismissed the PIL on January 10, clarifying that the issues raised in the writ petition could be examined in a more appropriate case.
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