Delhi High Court Directs RBI, Centre To Address Accessibility Challenges For Visually Impaired Before Printing New Currency

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela noted that, as per information provided by the RBI, currency printing generally takes place once every ten years. It held, “If that is so, we direct that both, the RBI as well as the Government of India, shall address the difficulties and impediments faced by vulnerable class of citizens like the specially abled/visually impaired persons and take into account the workable suggestions of the High Powered Committee before issuing or printing new currency notes. After all, the provisions of the Act [Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016] have been promulgated by the Government of India to alleviate and assuage the concerns of one of the most vulnerable citizens of this country.”

The Court further underlined that the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, enacted by the Government of India, is a legislative affirmation to safeguard and promote the rights of one of the most marginalized segments of the population. Hence, governmental and institutional efforts must reflect a proactive approach in aligning public services, including currency and banking systems, with the principles enshrined in the Act.

Background

A batch of petitions were filed that called for enhanced accessibility to currency, digital payment systems, and banking services for persons with visual impairments and other disabilities. Among the key prayers of the petitioners was a request that all currency notes specifically the ₹50 denomination be redesigned to include tactile identification features such as raised marks, helping visually impaired persons differentiate between denominations independently.

Additionally, the petitions sought the phasing out of currency notes that are currently inaccessible to the visually impaired and comprehensive accessibility improvements to banking portals and digital financial platforms.

Finding

The Court noted that decisions involving the introduction of digital currency or the redesign of physical currency notes fall squarely within the policy-making domain of the Central Government and RBI.

Nevertheless, the Court expressed its hope that both authorities would take a considered and empathetic view of the matter and implement the recommendations of the High-Powered Committee, which was constituted pursuant to earlier directions issued by the Court in this case.

"Given the fact that printing of new currency notes after alignment with the suggestions of the Committee may entail huge costs running into thousands of crores and the recall and destruction of old/prevalent currency would itself entail huge costs and time, we can only observe that the RBI and the Government of India shall keep in mind and take into consideration the suggestions of the High Powered Committee as and when the Government of India and RBI decide to print fresh currency," the Court observed.

The High Court directed the RBI to ensure strict implementation of the High-Powered Committee’s recommendations, as well as its own guidelines issued to banks regarding the accessibility of services for visually impaired individuals.

The Court mandated that the RBI must collect progress reports every six months from all banks regarding the steps taken to improve accessibility. This reporting should continue until all accessibility goals are met or fully implemented.

Cause Title: Rohit Dandriyal & Ors. v. Reserve Bank of India & Anr., [2025:DHC:8523-DB]

Appearance:

Petitioners: Advocates Rohit Dandriyal, Mini Agrawal, Deepesh Aneja, Ila Sheel, S Singh, and Areyna Shruti.

Respondents: Advocates Shiva Lakshmi, Madhav Bajaj, Katyayani Joshi, Esha Kumar, Ishkaran Singh Bhandari, Piyush Yadav, Rajesh Gogna, Monika Arora, Subhrodeep Saha, Prabhat Kumar, Anamika Thakur, Abhinav Verma, Ramesh Babu, Manisha Singh, Jagriti Bharti, Tanya Chowdhary and Arjun Mitra

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