Place records on demonetisation for perusal, SC tells government, RBI

NEW DELHI: When a Constitution bench first assembled on September 29 to hear a plea against the Centre’s 2016 demonetisation decision, the court had said that it was “dead case” and it would be an “academic exercise” to hear it six years on. But it still heard the case for five days and, at the end, directed the Centre and the RBI to place their files and records pertaining to the decision for its perusal.
Wrapping up the hearing on Wednesday, a bench of Justices Abdul Nazeer, B R Gavai, A S Bopanna, V Ramasubramanian and B V Nagarathna asked all the parties to file their written submissions within three days. It also asked the Centre and RBI to produce their records in a sealed envelope for its perusal. The judgment in this case will be delivered within a month before January 4, the day Justice Nazeer demits office as SC judge.
As the Centre and the RBI both opposed a judicial review of the decision, saying that it was a policy matter and the decision was taken to deal with the triple menace of fake currency, black money and terrorism, the bench had said that it would not decide the validity of the decision but would examine the procedure adopted in taking the decision. It said the decision taken in 2016 could not be reversed but the court could scrutinise the process adopted and lay down guidelines to streamline the process for such decision in future.