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Synopsis

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday asked the Centre and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to file their respective reply in a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay seeking directions to implement Uniform Banking Code.

During the hearing, counsel for RBI sought more time to file its reply in the plea. 

The division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Saurabh Banerjee granted 6 weeks' time to RBI and Centre to file their responses in the PIL.

The PIL raises the issue of a Uniform Banking Code for foreign exchange transfers to control black money generation and benami transactions.

The plea filed by Advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay stated that the "immigration rules for Visa are same whether a foreigner comes in Business Class or Economy Class, uses Air India or British Airways and comes from USA or Uganda. Likewise, deposit details in Indian banks, including foreign bank branches for Foreign Exchange Transaction must be in the same format whether it is export payment in a current account or salary, in a savings account or donation, in charity's current account or service charges payable in YouTuber's accounts."

It added that in a camouflaged way, foreign money is being transferred to accounts of Separatists, Fundamentalists, Naxals, Maoists, Terrorists, Traitors, Conversion Mafias and Radical Organizations like SIMI, PFI etc.

In addition to this, the plea further sought "direction to ensure that Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS), National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) and Instant Money Payment System (IMPS) shall not be used for depositing foreign money in Indian Banks as it is not only harming national interests of Foreign Exchange Reserve of India but also being used to provide money to Separatists, Fundamentalists, Naxals, Maoists, Terrorists, Traitors, Conversion Mafias & Radical Organizations like SIMI, PFI."

The plea, therefore, prayed for the direction that Foreign Exchange Transaction through Indian bank including foreign bank branches in India viz. ICICI, HDFC, HSBC etc. must have the following information:

i. Name and Mobile Number of Depositor.

ii. International Money Transfer (IMT) and not RTGS/NEFT /IMPS.

iii. Name of Currency e.g., AUD (Australian Dollars), USD (US Dollars), CNH (Chinese Yuan), GBP (Great British Pounds), EUR (Euro) etc.

iv. Exact Amount of foreign currency up to two decimal places.

v. Conversion rate up to three decimal places e.g., USD conversion rate is Rs. 73.570 and AUD conversion rate is Rs. 55.108

Cause Title: Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay Vs. Union of India & Ors.