New Delhi: The Supreme Court directed the Centre and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to produce relevant records related to Demonetization on Wednesday. The government’s decision to invalidate Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes in 2016 affected the common people to a greater extent. But the Modi Govt was hopeful to take out the black money through this move and get hold of the miscreants who were into tax evasion.
While reserving its judgment on a bunch of pleas challenging the Centre’s 2016 decision, a five-judge constitution bench was formed. The bench was headed by Justice S A Nazeer and Attorney General R Venkataramani. RBI counsel members and senior advocates P Chidambaram and Shyam Divan also heard the arguments of the counsel for the petitioners.
A bench of Justices BR Gavai, AS Bopanna, V Ramasubramaniam and BV Nagarathna said, “Heard. Judgment reserved. Learned counsels of the Union of India and Reserve Bank of India are directed to produce the relevant records.”
The AG told the bench of judges that he will submit the relevant records in a sealed cover. A batch of 58 petitions challenged the note ban announced by the Centre on November 8, 2016, which was being heard by the top court on Wednesday.
Earlier on Tuesday, the top court said, “There is a limited scope of a judicial review in economic policy matters but that does not mean that the court will fold its hands and sit back. We are observing that the manner in which a decision is taken by the government can always be examined.”
Both RBI and the Centre have earlier admitted that Demonetization was a “well-considered decision” and through “temporary hardships” the menace of tax evasion and black money could be controlled. We have to wait for Supreme Court’s judgment on the matter to get a final verdict on the petitions filed against the move.