Wrong to say SC has upheld demonetisation, verdict does not deal with outcomes: Congress

The Supreme Court in a 4:1 majority verdict has upheld the government's 2016 decision to demonetise Rs 1000 and Rs 500 denomination notes, saying the decision-making process was not flawed.

Justice B V Nagarathna dissented from the majority judgment of the Constitution bench headed by Justice S A Nazeer and said the scrapping of the Rs 500 and Rs 1000 series notes had to be done through a legislation and not through a notification.

"The majority Supreme Court verdict deals with the limited issue of the process of decision making not with its outcomes.  "To say that demonetisation has been upheld by the Honourable Supreme Court is totally misleading and wrong," said Ramesh.

"None of these goals - reducing currency in circulation, moving to cashless economy, curbing counterfeit currency, ending terrorism and unearthing black money-was achieved in significant measure," he added.

Surjewala said the SC verdict on Demonetisation is "deeply disappointing." "The Modi government subordinated the office of RBI, twisted the law for oblique purposes, bypassed Parliament and plunged India into a designed economic crisis. The SC failed to hold BJP Government accountable for its monumental recklessness," he said on Twitter.

"Due to demonetisation, the poorest suffered, families were devastated and economy reeled under the decision for years. Yet all of documented suffering has escaped the attention of the court. Not holding the government accountable will only embolden it to commit more illegalities," the Congress leader said.

Once the Supreme Court has declared the law, Chidambaram said, we are obliged to accept it.

"It may be only a slap on the wrist of the government, but a welcome slap on the wrist," he said in a series of tweets.

"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," he said.

The dissenting judgement will rank among the famous dissents recorded in the history of the Supreme Court, Chidambaram said.

Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said the Supreme Court has pronounced a verdict only on the process of Demonetisation and none of the judgements commented on the outcome of it.

"The SC hasn't validated the demonetisation and nothing was opined on the outcomes of the policy," he said.

"To say that demonetisation has been upheld by the Supreme Court is misleading and brazenly wrong," he said.

Ramesh in a statement said that the Supreme Court has only pronounced on whether Section 26(2) of RBI Act, 1934 was correctly applied or not before announcing demonetisation on November 8 2016.

"Nothing more, nothing less. One judge in her dissenting opinion has said that Parliament should not have been bypassed," he said.

In its verdict on Monday, the court said there has to be great restraint in matters of economic policy and the court cannot supplant the wisdom of the executive by a judicial review of its decision.

The bench, also comprising Justices B R Gavai, A S Bopanna, and V Ramasubramanian, said the Centre's decision-making process could not have been flawed as there was consultation between the RBI and the Union government.