The Madras High Court has questioned the ruling dispensation on what authority it has printed ‘Devanagari’ numerals on the new Rs 2000 currency notes along with the regular English numerical. On Monday, Madurai bench of the Madras High Court had posed this question to the Centre while hearing a PIL filed by KPT Ganesan, a Madurai resident.
He had also demanded a reply from the Finance Ministry on the same. Citing Article 343 of the Constitution, the petitioner argued that only international form of Indian numerals can be used for official purposes of the Union.
He also contended that the usage of ‘Devanagari’ numerals is against the Indian Constitution and, therefore, asked the court to declare the newly-introduced Rs 2,000 notes as ‘invalid’.According to Ganesan, the Official Languages Act, 1963 doesn’t allow any provision for the use of Devanagiri numerals. He also pointed out that even the President didn’t give the nod for any such usage of Devanagiri.