The Supreme Court on March 21 refused to intervene on behalf of individuals who could not exchange their demonetised currency for valid bank notes in 2016.
Two months after a Constitution Bench delivered a majority verdict upholding the Narendra Modi government's demonetisation policy, the court said it cannot flex its extraordinary powers under Article 142 of the Constitution to help persons who missed the opportunity to trade their demonetised ₹ 500 and ₹ 1000 bills for the new bank notes.
The court however observed that the grievances of these people may be genuine.
The Bench led by Justice BR Gavai, who had authored the majority opinion for the Constitution Bench in January, directed the aggrieved petitioners and other affected persons to approach the Centre for reprieve.
The court said the government should decide their representations within 12 weeks of receiving them. Those unhappy with the government's decision on their representation could move the jurisdictional high court.
On January 2, a majority of four judges on the Constitution Bench had found no flaw in the government’s process to demonetise ₹500 and ₹ 1000 banknotes through a gazette notification issued on November 8, 2016.
The sole woman judge, Justice B.V. Nagarathna, on the five-member Bench however disagreed with the majority, saying the government’s notification issued under Section 26(2) of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Act was unlawful.
But Justice Gavai, delivering the judgment for the majority which included Justices S. Abdul Nazeer, AS Bopanna, V. Ramasubramanian, had said the statutory procedure under Section 26(2) was not violated merely because the Centre had taken the initiative to “advise” the Central Board to consider recommending demonetisation. The government was empowered under the provision to demonetise “all series” of banknotes.
Differing, Justice Nagarathna had noted that the government could issue a notification under Section 26(2) only if the Central Board of the RBI had initiated the proposal to demonetise a specified series of banknotes by way of a recommendation. Here, in 2016, the government had initiated the demonetisation, not the Central Board.
