Cap on Cash Withdrawal: Delhi HC Dismisses Plea to Recall its Order

New Delhi: Delhi High Court on Friday dismissed an application seeking recall of its order rejecting a plea to remove the cap on daily withdrawal of money deposited in banks before the demonetisation decision.

"The application is dismissed," a bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice V Kameswar Rao said. The bench had on November 25 dismissed a plea filed by a businessman seeking direction to the Centre to remove the cap on daily withdrawal of money deposited by the public in banks before demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes.

The bench on November 30 had reserved its verdict for today on the application seeking recall of its earlier order.

The plea had accused the Centre of making a false statement in the court that the restriction on cash withdrawal of Rs 24,000 by individuals was only till November 24 as this limit has been extended till December 30.

While hearing the plea of Ashok Sharma earlier, the bench had said that there is no restriction as such, because money can be withdrawn or transferred through cheques, demand drafts or by net-banking.

The Centre had also opposed the plea saying the Supreme Court is seized of the issue and the restriction is only to make the policy effective.

The court had listed out grounds for dismissing the plea on November 25 and said that first, the apex court is seized of the matter and secondly, the cap on withdrawal was in force till November 24.

The fresh plea alleged that the Centre's notification of November 8 on the weekly withdrawal limit from the banks was modified on November 14 and now it is in force till December 30. Earlier, the petitioner had sought quashing of Clause 2 (vi) of the Centre's notification and had contended that the decision to put a cap on weekly withdrawal of Rs 24,000 was "affecting right to livelihood" of the people at large.

Under the earlier Clause 2 (vi), the weekly withdrawal limit from the banks was Rs 20,000 while the daily limit was Rs 10,000. Later, the weekly limit was increased to Rs 24,000 and the daily limit was scrapped. From the ATMs, the daily limit is Rs 2,500.