New Delhi : In a strong dissent to the 4:1 Supreme Court verdict on demonetisation, Justice BV Nagaratna said the government notification to demonitise Rs 1000 and Rs 500 currency notes back in 2016, was “unlawful” and that government was not alloweed to take such decision. She acknowledged the petitioners’ side of the argument, that as per section 26 of the Reserve bank off India Act, the Central Board of the RBI should have independently recommended demonetisation on advice of the government. In her dissent ruling, Justice Nagaratna observed that there was no independent application of mind that occurred on part of the RBI.
Centric to the petitioners’ argument was, that “as per RBI Act, recommendation for demonetisation should originate from the board of the Reserve bank of India", but in this case, the Centre wrote a letter to RBI on 7 November advising such a move, she said.
Justice Nagaratna further held, that in the previous instances, demonetisation was initiated through an Act of Parliament and not by an Executive notification.
While rejecting petitioner’s plea to annul the ban, Justice said the government by itself was vested with sovereign power in economic matters and that striking down the 6-year-old ban would be like ‘putting clock back’ or ‘unscrambling the scrambled egg’.
A total of 58 petitions were filed in the Supreme Court challenging the chaotic note ban, seeking that the ban be reversed.
