Supreme Court Upholds Centre's Demonetisation: What The Dissenting Judge said, What Is Congress's Reaction

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has upheld the central government's decision of demonetisation or noteban. A five-judge constitution bench gave its verdict on Monday. The bench said that there was no disturbance in the process of demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes. The bench also said that the economic decision cannot be reversed. The Constitution Bench pronounced this decision by a majority of four-one.

The constitution bench of the Supreme Court said that before demonetisation there was a conversation between the government and the RBI. From this it can be assumed that demonetisation was not an arbitrary decision of the government. The Constitution Bench upheld the government's decision, but Justice BV Nagaratna, who was part of the bench, found the process adopted was wrong.

The five-judge constitution bench comprised Justices S Abdul Nazeer, BR Gavai, AS Bopanna, V Ramasubramaniam and Justice BV Nagaratna. 

Of these, Justice BV Nagaratna wrote a different judgment from the opinion of the other four judges. She said that the decision of demonetisation was illegal. It was to be taken through legislation instead of gazette notification. However, she said that this will not affect the old decision of the government.

Demonetisation was to be implemented through Parliament

"Parliament should have discussed the law on demonetisation, the process should not have been done through a gazette notification. Parliament cannot be left aloof on an issue of such critical importance for the country," Justice Nagarathna said.

She also said there was no independent application of mind by the Reserve Bank of India and only its opinion was sought, which cannot be said to be a recommendation.

She also said there was no independent application of mind by the Reserve Bank of India and only its opinion was sought, which cannot be said to be a recommendation.

Cong's reaction

Former Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Monday said the majority verdict by the Supreme Court has not answered the question whether the objectives of the demonetisation exercise were achieved at all.

The 'minority' judgment pointed out the 'illegality' and the 'irregularities' in the demonetisation, Chidambaram said on Monday soon after the apex court made its verdict.

'Once the Hon'ble Supreme Court has declared the law, we are obliged to accept it. However, it is necessary to point out that the majority has not upheld the wisdom of the decision; nor has the majority concluded that the stated objectives were achieved,' the senior Congress leader said in a tweet.