WON’T GO INTO WHETHER NOTE BAN OBJECTIVES WERE MET: SC

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday indicated that it would not be considering whether or not the objectives of the demonetisation exercise of 2016 were met, and would only look at whether the Centre’s move was in keeping with its powers under the RBI Act, and if due process was followed.

The five-judge Constitution bench hearing a bunch of petitions challenging the demonetisation notification of November 8, 2016 said: “What can be done now? It is over. We can only consider whether (under) Section 26(2) of RBI Act, (the) power (to carry out the exercise) was available to Centre and (if) the procedure was followed.” This section gives the Union government the power to declare, based on a recommendation of RBI’S board, that “any series of bank notes of any denomination shall cease to be legal tender...”.

The issue is whether the Centre’s move to invalidate all ₹500 and ₹1,000 currency notes, comes under the definition of “any series”. The apex court’s approach is in keeping with what it said at the beginning of the hearing, when it was pointed out that the demonetisation exercise goes back six years and that the clock cannot be turned back. The court’s reiteration on Thursday came after senior advocate P Chidambaram, representing one of the petitioners, argued that the government “miserably failed” in achieving any of the objectives listed for undertaking demonetisation.