Mumbai, Sept. 16 -- A Delhi lawyer has initiated the first legal challenge against the Centre's decision to charge merchants for accepting Unified Payments Interface (UPI) payments of Rs.2,000 or more.

Advocate Anjan Datta, who filed a public interest litigation against the 2026 University Grants Commission (UGC) regulations and won a stay, filed a plea in the Supreme Court on Wednesday, seeking the quashing of the new merchant discount rate (MDR) framework.

". impugned action bears directly upon the fundamental rights of an exceptionally large and largely unorganised class of citizens," stated the 54-page writ petition seen by Mint.

Datta, who also challenged the Place of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, argued that a change of...