Supreme Court verdict on demonetisation to be declared on January 2

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court is scheduled to pronounce its judgment on January 2 on a batch of pleas challenging the government’s 2016 decision to demonetise currency notes of `1,000 and `500 denominations.

A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Justice SA Nazeer, who will retire on January 4, is likely to pronounce its verdict on the matter on the said date.

The top court had, on December 7, directed the Centre and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to put on record the relevant records relating to the government’s 2016 decision and reserved its verdict.

The bench, also comprising justices B R Gavai, A S Bopanna, V Ramasubramanian and B V Nagarathna, had heard the submissions of Attorney General R Venkataramani, the RBI’s counsel and the petitioners’ lawyers, including senior advocates P Chidambaram and Shyam Divan.

Calling the scrapping of the `500 and `1,000 currency notes deeply flawed, Chidambaram had argued that the government cannot on its own initiate any proposal relating to legal tender, which can only be done on the recommendation of the RBI’s central board.