Praising the dissenting judgment of the demonetisation move by the Union government announced in 2016, former Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Monday said that it will “rank among the famous dissents” recorded in the history of the Supreme Court. He also said that the minority judgment “emphasised the important role of Parliament” in a democracy.
In a 4:1 majority verdict, a five-judge Constitution bench of the apex court headed by Justice S A Nazeer upheld the Centre’s 2016 decision to demonetise the high-value currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denominations, saying the decision-making process was not flawed. Justice Nagarathna, however, did not concur with the majority view and dissented saying that the 2016 notification by the Centre was unlawful.
“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. In fact, the majority has steered clear of the question whether the objectives were achieved at all,” Chidambaram said in a Twitter thread on Monday.
“We are happy that the minority judgement has pointed out the illegality and the irregularities in the demonetisation. It may be only a slap on the wrist of the government, but a welcome slap on the wrist,” he added.
“The dissenting judgement will rank among the famous dissents recorded in the history of the Hon’ble Supreme Court,” Chidambaram, who also argued in the case earlier, noted.
On December 7, the Supreme Court had directed the Centre and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to place before it relevant records and reserved the verdict. The arguments of Attorney General R Venkataramani, the RBI’s counsel and the petitioners’ lawyers, including senior advocates P Chidambaram and Shyam Divan were heard.
The top court’s judgment came on a batch of 58 petitions challenging the demonetisation exercise announced by the Union government on November 8, 2016. Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a late-night address announced that the currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 will be demonetised, implying that they would cease to be legal tenders, adding that this was done to curb the menace of black money.
Soon after the decision, long queues were witnessed to exchange their money. It also turned tragic for many as over 100 people, including elderly, died while standing in the queues to exchange their money, according to The Indian Express.
While the Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government maintained that it was a “bold” move, the Opposition, over the years, has criticised the government, calling the decision a “failure”.