New Delhi : Supreme Court’s five-judge Constitution bench will pronounce the verdict on January 2, 2023, Monday, on the batch of petitions challenging the validity of the Centre’s 2016 move to demonetise currency notes of Rs 500 & 1,000.
Justice BR Gavai will pronounce the unanimous judgment on January 02, Monday, 2023, on behalf of the 5 judges of the Constitution Bench that heard the case. A five-judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Justice S Abdul Nazeer, had on December 07, reserved the judgement after extensively hearing the arguments and submissions from various petitioners, Centre and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in the matter.The other four judges in the bench of the Top Court were: Justices BR Gavai, AS Bopanna, V Ramasubramanian and BV Nagarathna.
The Apex Court, while reserving its verdict, had asked the Centre and RBI to place before it the records pertaining to the decision of demonitizatiom in a sealed envelope for its perusal. Senior advocate and former Finance Minister, P Chidambaram, who was leading the arguments on part of many petitioners, told the Top court that if the central government was so confident of its order of introducing demonetization.
, it should not shy away from producing the relevant files or material that went into the decision-making process.“The demonetization exercise was completely flawed,” Chidambaram had told the Supreme Court, and added that the process had to emanate from the RBI under Section 26(2) of the RBI Act, which deals with the power to demonetize currency notes of any denomination.
The Centre, in its affidavit filed in the Supreme Court, has defended its decision to demonetise Rs 500 and 1,000 currency notes in 2016 as it said that it was a major step to fight the menace of fake currency notes, terror financing, black money and tax evasion.
The Centre, in its affidavit, filed in the Supreme Court, said that it was a part of a larger strategy for combating the menace of fake money, terror financing, black money and tax evasion, but not confined to them alone.
“It was an economic policy decision exercised in accordance with powers conferred by an Act of the Parliament (RBI Act, 1934), in conformity with the provisions of the said Act and was subsequently affirmatively taken note of by the Parliament in the Specified Bank Notes (Cessation of Liabilities) Act, 2017,” the affidavit said.
The affidavit was filed to counter the various pleas challenging the Centre November 8, 2016, decision. The matter is being heard by the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court.
“The notification issued on November 8, 2016 was a major step to fight the menace of fake currency notes, storage of unaccounted wealth and financing of subversive activities,” the government said.
Justifying its decision, the government also said, “The expansion of the formal sector and the shrinking of the informal sector were undertaken through a series of policy measures. The policy push included digitalising transactions, technology connectivity and implementation to enable last-mile reach, increasing the tax base, enhancing tax compliance, lowering the cost of doing business, eliminating policy distortions, facilitating financial inclusion at the formal sector level and labour and agrarian reforms.”
“The withdrawal of the legal tender character was one of the significant steps in the enhanced formalisation of the economy with the aim of expanding opportunities for the millions living on the periphery of the economy,” the government said.
