The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Centre and the Reserve
Bank of India (RBI) to put on record relevant records relating to the
government's 2016 decision to demonetise currency notes of Rs 1000 and Rs 500
denomination for its perusal.
Reserving its verdict on a batch of pleas challenging
the Centre's 2016 decision, a five-judge constitution bench headed by Justice S
A Nazeer heard the submissions from Attorney General R Venkataramani, RBI's
counsel, and the petitioners' lawyers, including senior advocates P Chidambaram
and Shyam Divan.
The top court directed the parties to file written
submissions by December 10.
"Heard. Judgement reserved. Learned counsels of
the Union of India and Reserve Bank of
India are directed to produce the relevant records," the
bench, also comprising Justices B R Gavai, A S Bopanna, V Ramasubramanian, and
B V Nagarathna, said.
The AG submitted before the bench that he will submit
relevant records in a sealed cover.
The top court was hearing a batch of 58 petitions
challenging the demonetisation announced
by the Centre on November 8, 2016.
The apex court had on Tuesday said that limited scope
of a judicial review in economic policy matters does not mean that the court
will fold its hands and sit back, observing that the manner in which a decision
is taken by the government can always be examined.
Calling the demonetisation of
Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes deeply flawed, Chidambaram had argued that
the Union 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.
Resisting the apex court's attempt to revisit the 2016 demonetisation exercise,
the government had said the court 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 submission that there were "temporary
hardships" and that they too are an integral part of the nation-building
process, but there was a mechanism by which problems that arose were solved.
The Centre recently told the top court in an affidavit
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.
Defending the exercise, the Centre had told the apex
court that the step was taken after extensive consultations with the RBI and
that advance preparations were made before the note ban was enforced.