Supreme Court To Pronounce Verdict On Pleas Against Demonetisation Today. Key Points To Know

The Supreme Court will pronounce its judgment today on a slew of pleas that challenged the Modi government's 2016 move to demonetise currency notes of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 denominations

The Supreme Court has heard a batch of 58 petitions challenging the demonetisation exercise announced by the Centre on November 8, 2016.

Source : PTI

New Delhi: The Supreme Court will pronounce its judgment on Monday on a slew of pleas that challenged the Modi government's 2016 move to demonetise currency notes of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 denominations.

The verdict is likely to be pronounced today after the top court reopens post-winter break, reported news agency PTI.

A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Justice S A Nazeer, who will retire on January 4, is likely to pronounce its verdict on the issue. Going by Monday's cause list of the top court, two separate judgements will be pronounced on the matter by Justices B R Gavai and B V Nagarathna. It is not clear whether the two judgements will be concurring or dissenting.

Other members of the five-judge bench include Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, the PTI report added.

Key things to know ahead of verdict on demonetisation

• On December 7, the top court 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. This came after the apex court heard the arguments of Attorney General R Venkataramani, the RBI's counsel and the petitioners' lawyers, including senior advocates P Chidambaram and Shyam Divan.
• Chidambaram, who termed the demonetisation move deeply flawed, 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.
• On its part, the government resisted the top court's attempt to revisit the 2016 demonetisation exercise saying it cannot decide a matter when no tangible relief can be granted by way of "putting the clock back" and "unscrambling a scrambled egg".
• The RBI had earlier admitted in its submissions that there were "temporary hardships" and that those too are an integral part of the nation-building process, but there was a mechanism by which the problems that arose were solved.
• In an affidavit, the Centre told the top court recently that the demonetisation exercise was a "well-considered" decision and part of a larger strategy to combat the menace of fake money, terror financing, black money and tax evasion.

The Supreme Court has heard a batch of 58 petitions challenging the demonetisation exercise announced by the Centre on November 8, 2016.