Why change features of notes, coins, Bombay HC asks

The PIL filed by the National Association for the Blind (NAB) sought directions to the RBI to include distinctive features in coins and in currency notes, so visually-challenged persons can easily identify the same.

The Bombay high court (HC) on Thursday rapped the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for changing features of currency notes and coins and directed the banking regulator to file an affidavit, disclosing the need to do so, in two weeks.

The HC agreed that the distinctive features of notes and coins are required to be retained and RBI has to do that.(HT FILE)

“What is the necessity to change the features?” the bench of chief justice Pradeep Nandrajog and justice Nitin Jamdar sought to know from the RBI. The high court was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) highlighting the difficulties faced by visually-challenged persons in identifying new notes and coins.

“World over, currency remains the same. It’s only here that they keep changing the size of notes. Fifty, 20, 10... and even the note of 100 has undergone change,” said the bench.

The PIL filed by the National Association for the Blind (NAB) sought directions to the RBI to include distinctive features in coins and in currency notes, so visually-challenged persons can easily identify the same.

The HC agreed that the distinctive features of notes and coins are required to be retained and RBI has to do that.