New Delhi, Jan 02, 2023, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT/ TT
New Delhi, Jan 02: The Supreme Court Monday upheld the Centre's 2016 decision to demonetise currency notes of 500 and 1000 rupee denominations, drawing instant applause from the BJP, but criticism of the government from the opposition.
A five-judge Constitution bench dismissed by 4:1 a batch of petitions challenging the Centre’s decision to demonetise 500 and 1000 rupee notes. The bench, headed by Justice S A Nazeer, said the decision, being the Executive's economic policy, cannot be reversed.
Reading out the majority judgment, Justice BR Gavai said, Centre's decision-making process cannot be flawed as there was consultation between the Reserve Bank of India and the Union government.
The bench comprising Justices S Abdul Nazeer, BR Gavai, AS Bopanna, V Ramasubramanian and BV Nagarathna was hearing the batch of 58 petitions challenging the Centre's decision.
Justice Nagarathna differed from the majority judgment on the point of the Centre's powers under section 26(2) of the RBI Act.
In an affidavit, the Centre had told the top court that the demonetisation exercise was a well-considered decision and part of a larger strategy to combat the menace of fake money, terror financing, black money and tax evasion.
The BJP hailed the Supreme Court judgment upholding the government's demonetisation exercise as "historic" and slammed the Congress for its campaign against the decision and asked if its leader Rahul Gandhi will tender an apology after the verdict.
Former Union law minister and BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad asserted that the demonetisation done in 2016 proved to to be the "biggest blow" to terrorism by curbing terror funding. It boosted income tax and cleansed the economy, he claimed.
"It is a historic decision and is in national interest. The Supreme Court has held a decision taken in national interest valid. Will Rahul Gandhi now say sorry for his campaign against demonetisation. He spoke against it even abroad," Prasad said at a press conference.
Prasad also hit out at Congress leaders, especially former Union finance minister P Chidambaram, for highlighting the minority judgment. They are ignoring with impunity the majority verdict to make incharitable and scandalous statements, he said, slamming Chidambaram.
The Congress, however, maintained that it was wrong to say that the SC has upheld demonetisation. It is "misleading and wrong" to say the Supreme Court has upheld demonetisation, the Congress said, adding that the majority apex court verdict on the matter deals with the limited issue of the process of decision-making not with its outcomes.
The verdict has nothing to say on whether the stated objectives of demonetisation were met, AICC general secretary Jairam Ramesh said. "If anybody has to apologise, it has to be the Prime Minister, because the 'Tughlaki' decision taken by him on November 8, 2016 destroyed lakhs of MSMEs, the informal sector, and livelihood of lakhs of people, and we continue to face the negative impact it had on our economy," Ramesh said.
Congress leader Randeep Surjewala said the SC verdict is "deeply disappointing" as the top court has failed to hold the BJP-led Union government accountable for its "monumental recklessness.
The dissenting verdict on demonetisation is a "slap on the wrist" of the government as it has pointed out the "illegality and irregularities" in the decision, added his colleague and former Union finance minister P Chidambaram.
CPI General Secretary D Raja said citizens should give due consideration to the "dissent judgment" in the Supreme Court's verdict on demonetisation, as it has questioned certain basic issues over the policy decision.
Parliament was not given the opportunity to discuss the pros and cons of the demonetisation policy when it was announced "surprisingly" and "suddenly" by Prime Minister Narendra Modi back in 2016, he told reporters.