A petition has been filed in the Delhi High Court seeking directions to the Centre and Reserve Bank of India to formulate a policy to issue ₹ 50 coins to provide equal opportunity and ease of doing business to the visually-challenged citizens of the country.
The High Court bench comprising Chief Justice D. N. Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh has listed the matter for hearing on February 25, 2022.
The petition has been filed in a pending petition of advocate Rohit Dandriyal which has sought withdrawal of new currency notes of ₹50 citing the reason that the visually challenged people find it difficult to use them due to their size and tactile marks.
“Respondents have enacted a number of schemes for the benefit of the visually-challenged and have launched coins of the denomination of ₹1, 2, 5, 10 and 20. While the currency notes of the denomination of ₹1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 100, 200, 500 and 2,000 are visually-challenged friendly, the same is not applicable for the ₹50 note, which is indistinguishable from the ₹100 and ₹500 notes and there is no coin available for the same,” said the petitioners who also referred to a study conducted.
Earlier, the High Court had asked the Centre government and RBI to examine the new currency notes in connection to similar issues.
The HC had told the government and RBI to consider the issue and if possible examine the new currency notes of ₹200 and ₹50 denominations as the visually-challenged people were finding it difficult to use them due to their size and the tactile marks.
In its August 18, 2019 order, the court had refused to stay the printing and circulation of new ₹ 50 notes.
The plea was filed by three advocates, a company secretary and NGO, All India Confederation of Blind.
Advocate Dandriyal submitted that as per RBI, there is a special feature introduced on the left of the watermark window on all notes, except the ₹10 currency.
The petition stated, “This feature is in different shapes for various denominations. For example, a vertical rectangle denotes a ₹20 note, a square means ₹50 (in older notes), triangle and circle for ₹100, a diamond denoted the ₹1,000 currency which is not a legal tender now.”
The NGO submitted that visually challenged people are facing hardship in identification, usage and transaction of the new currency notes of ₹2,000, ₹500, ₹200 and ₹50 denominations.
The NGO also raised the point that the size of old and new notes are different. Therefore, it has sought the replacement of coins of ₹10, ₹5, ₹2 and ₹1 saying these were of a similar structure
