The Supreme Court on December 7 directed the Centre and the RBI to place on record the “relevant records” relating to the government’s 2016 decision to demonetise currency notes of ₹1,000 and ₹500 denomination for its perusal.
Reserving its verdict on a batch of pleas challenging the Centre’s decision, a five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Justice S.A. Nazeer heard the submissions from Attorney-General R. Venkataramani, RBI’s counsel, and the petitioners’ lawyers, including senior advocates P. Chidambaram and Shyam Divan.
The Attorney-General said that the documents will be handed over in a sealed cover.
The court had said it cannot be expected to fold its hands and sit without judicially reviewing the procedure or manner in which the decision to demonetise ₹500 and ₹1,000 currency notes were withdrawn from legal tender in November 2016.
The Supreme Court has also asked the government whether it would have brushed aside objections from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had the central bank opposed the demonetisation policy.
The government had announced demonetisation, not through a parliamentary statute, but by issuing a notification in the gazette. The petitioners had argued that such an important move should not have been made by way of a “delegated legislation” like a gazette notification. The petitioners had also argued that the RBI had been in the dark about the demonetisation move.
