Supreme Court of India on Monday upheld the government’s decision in 2016 to demonetize 86% of the country’s cash in circulation, saying the decision was taken in consultation with the central bank and followed legal due process. The court’s judgment came on a batch of 58 petitions challenging the demonization. The petitioners included lawyers, a political party, cooperative banks, and individuals.
Image Courtesy: Dnaindia
“The…notification dated 8th November 2016 does not suffer from any flaws in the decision-making process,” Justice B R Gavai, one of the four judges who agreed on the decision, said in a written opinion. India’s former finance minister, P Chidambaram was among the lawyers who argued against the note ban measure.
The verdict was passed by a score of 4-1
A five-judge bench of the country’s top court passed the verdict by a majority on a batch of petitions questioning the move. One out of the five judges wrote a dissenting opinion. Justice BV Nagarathna differed from the majority judgment on the point of the Centre’s powers under section 26(2) of the RBI Act.
RBI Didn't Independently Apply Its Mind In Recommending Demonetisation, Entire Exercise Carried Out In 24 Hours : Justice BV Nagarathna
Read more: https://t.co/8XRahkPhHi#Demonetisation #SupremeCourt #dissent pic.twitter.com/VafxjT9q1x— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) January 2, 2023
She, however, added that the move was well thought of, to battle counter black money circulation and terror funding.
Here’s how Twitter reacted…
A tweet from Jairam Ramesh which is making rounds by the opposition.
The Supreme Court's verdict on #Demonetisation has nothing to say on whether the stated goals of this disastrous decision were met or not.
My statement on the matter: pic.twitter.com/63HpyvHK7e
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) January 2, 2023
To which Kanchan Gupta replied,
As always @Jairam_Ramesh is being disingenuous.
Constitution Bench has addressed the question of legality of #demonetisation which was the crux of all the petitions, including by your out-on-bail corruption accused @PChidambaram_IN legal-weasel.
Your statement is irrelevant. https://t.co/4fzrW1EzZT— Kanchan Gupta 🇮🇳 (@KanchanGupta) January 2, 2023
A user stated,
It may be 'Unlawful',
It may be 'Unwarned n Unwanted'
But
The Verdict will be 'as desired by the Central Govt.'. #Demonetisation pic.twitter.com/Dou4ty5eOy— 2.0 𝓐 rundhati…🖋️🧨 (@Polytikles) January 2, 2023
A twitter attacked the opposition for the narrative being spread,
They will not say that the Supreme Court upheld #demonetisation with a 4-1 majority judgement but will quote two lines from a minority judgement to convince themselves of their rejected narrative, even ignoring what the minority judgement too said about objects of the exercise. https://t.co/V272q26cFr
— Utkarsh K. Shahi 🇮🇳 (@ukshahi) January 2, 2023
Minister Anurag Thakur tweeted,
Todays landmark judgment by Hon. Supreme Court upholds the Union Governments decision on #Demonetisation and dispels the misinformation campaign and propaganda spread by the opposition.
सत्यमेव जयते https://t.co/PJBemt1wug
— Anurag Thakur (@ianuragthakur) January 2, 2023
A twitter user stated the BJP planned this,
#Demonetisation was announced at 8 pm on November 8th 2016.
The next morning there were full & front page advertisements of PayTM applauding demonetization and promoting cashless banking.
My Question:
So #PayTM got creatives, copy and media space booked within 2 hours?
— Sanjay Jha (@JhaSanjay) January 2, 2023
A Twitter user stated how this was bound to happen and is not surprising,
Am not the least surprised by the #SupremeCourtOfIndia upholding the government decision on #Demonetisation of high-value currency notes in 2016. It was a calculated gamble that failed economically but worked politically as an act of courage. Anyway, being unwise is not illegal
— Madhavan Narayanan (@madversity) January 2, 2023
Irrespective of the verdict, nobody can deny the damage Demonetization did to the country. Yes, there are advantages of the move but at the time it was brought in was very abrupt, which led to many commoners being mainly affected by the move.
Despite the chaos caused by the move, many people supported demonetization after Prime Minister Narendra Modi framed the decision as a fight for the poor against the corrupt.
Image Courtesy: TV9marathi
Though it’s been 6 years since the move was brought in and there is nothing much that can be done to reverse it now. With the economic challenges faced by the nation, it’s better to look ahead and shift our focus on the upcoming threats.
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