The Supreme Court of India will deliver its verdict on January 2 in a batch of over 50 petitions challenging the Centre’s decision to demonetise currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 in 2016. A five-judge bench headed by Justice Abdul Nazeer will deliver the verdict a day before Justice Nazeer is due to retire.
A unanimous verdict authored by Justice BR Gavai is expected according to the Supreme Court’s causelist. The constitution bench also comprises Justices A.S. Bopanna, V. Ramasubramanian, and B.V. Nagarathna.
The top court had reserved its verdict on December 7, six years after the policy was brought in by the government.
While reserving its verdict, the court had asked the Centre and RBI to produce all relevant documents and records regarding the 2016 demonetisation policy. Attorney General had said all records will be filed in a sealed cover.
Arguing on behalf of the petitioners, Senior Advocate and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram had torn into Centre’s 2016 demonetisation policy and told the Court that the process followed by the government was deeply flawed & should be struck down.
Calling it the most outrageous decision making process, Chidambaram had said that the process made mockery of the rule of law of this country.
He had said that any power of the Government to demonetise is only on recommendation of the Central Board but there was a reversal of procedure in the present case, Chidambaram argued.
The attorney general of India had however defended demonetisation policy, and said that larger benefits brought in economic system on one hand and one time hardship faced by people is incomparable.
