New Delhi, Sept. 29 -- The Supreme Court on Monday sought the response of the Centre on a petition challenging the government's decision to introduce a Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) on Unified Payments Interface (UPI) person-to-merchant transactions over Rs.2,000. Hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by advocate Anjan Datta, a bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant said, "This is less of a legal and more of a technical issue. We need you (Centre) to state the facts on a short affidavit." The bench, also comprising justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana, said that it would only like to see the legal source of implementing this charge. It said, "What is the executive scope of imposing this charge? If it is a fee, it cannot be by way of an executive fiat. If not, then what is it?" The petition filed and argued by Datta, along with advocate Ashutosh Dubey, challenged the September 14 Ministry of Finance notification proposing the MDR charge, which will take effect from October 15. It also challenged the constitutional validity of the legislative amendment that enabled the notification. Under the proposed framework, the Centre plans a 0.4% MDR on UPI payments of over Rs.2000 made to merchants. This charge will be capped at Rs.300 for transactions above Rs.75,000. The Centre had clarified that the decision will not impact person-to-person UPI transfers that will continue to remain free, regardless of the transaction amount. Though Datta sought a stay of the notification, the court refused to pass any order in this regard, claiming that the issue involves economic policy. Appearing for Centre, additional solicitor general (ASG) N Venkataraman said, "The decision is yet to come into effect on October 15."...