Delhi High Court issues notice in PIL seeking uniform banking code for foreign exchange transactions

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday issued notice in a plea seeking a common banking code for foreign exchange transactions..Notice was issued by a Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Navin Chawla. .The plea filed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Ashwini Upadhyay sought a direction to ensure that Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS), National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT), Instant Money Payment System (IMPS) and other similar modes of payment were not used for depositing foreign money in Indian banks..In his plea, it was argued that if immigration rules for Visa were the same for foreigners coming from any country, through any airline, then deposit details in banks for foreign exchange transactions must be in the same format as well..The plea added that this step was also necessary to ensure that foreign money did not, in a camouflaged way, get transferred to accounts of separatists, fundamentalists, naxals, maoists, terrorists, traitors, conversion mafia and radical organizations like SIMI, PFI and others..A direction was sought to include the name and number of depositors, names of the currency and the exact amount of foreign currency and conversion rate whenever a foreign exchange transaction was made through an Indian bank, including branches of foreign banks in India..When the matter was taken up by the Bench on Tuesday, Upadhyay argued that there was massive foreign funding to divide our country."Around 50K crore money is coming into the country to disturb our society. I don't want to name what organisations are doing, but it is a very serious threat. Therefore I want a uniform banking code," he said. Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma, who appeared for the Central government, also said that the issue needed serious consideration."The research done is commendable and it requires consideration. We will come back on it.".The Bench, therefore, directed the respondents to file a reply within four weeks and listed the matter for further consideration on May 25..[Read a live account of the hearing here]