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The Ordinance was promulgated in the interest of the general public to meet a certain emergency that had arisen. The declaration that the high denomination bank notes ceased to be legal tender did not infringe any of the constitutional rights of a citizen. Once the high denomination bank notes ceased to be legal tender, any restriction on their transfer to another person cannot be said to be unreasonable. The Ordinance provided for exchange of the high denomination notes for notes of smaller denominations on certain conditions.

Therefore all that a person who held high denomination notes had to do was to have them exchanged for notes of smaller denominations after fulfilling the conditions prescribed therefor. He had nothing to gain by not having them exchanged for notes of smaller denominations and instead transferring them to another person.

A person also had nothing to gain by acquiring high denomination notes when they had ceased to be legal tender. Therefore, the restriction imposed by Section 4 of the Ordinance upon the power to transfer or to receive high denomination notes was not at all an unreasonable restriction; having regard to the emergency which justified the promulgation of the Ordinance, the restriction was undoubtedly reasonable.

23. It appears that on receipt of the letter of the Agent of the Imperial Bank, Drigpal Singh, one of the trustees, recorded the statements of the applicant and some others in respect of this transaction of exchanging the high denomination bank notes. The applicant in his statement said that Sridhar Acharya had given him the notes for having them exchanged and it was Sridhar Acharya who had told him that the notes belonged to the temple and had been taken out from the temple treasury.

The applicant made it clear in his statement that he had no personal knowledge as to the source from where the high denomination bank notes came. From his statement it was further clear that to his knowledge there existed in the temple treasury and tosha khana some two or three high denomination bank notes. The applicant made it further clear in his statement that he had exchanged the high denomination bank notes in his capacity of a general attorney or mukhtar-e-am of the temple.

Under Clause (5), the State could make any law, imposing reasonable restrictions on the exercise of the right of a citizen to acquire and dispose of or hold property in the interest of the general public. The impugned Ordinance was passed because an emergency had arisen because of great currency inflation and restrictions were placed because such restrictions were necessary in the interest of the general public.

Section 4 of the Ordinance, it should be noticed, did not place any restriction on the right of any citizen to acquire or receive the equivalent in smaller" denomination bank notes, the value that was represented by high denomination bank notes, nor did it prohibit the transfer of an equivalent value of a high denomination note to another citizen : ' What was prohibited was the receiving or the transfer of the high denomination notes in species and this prohibition was made, as I have already said, in the interest of the general public. In my view, therefore, the provisions of Sections 3 and 4 of the Ordinance were not in conflict with the guarantee given by the Constitution under Article 19(1)(f).