NEW DELHI: India’s Supreme Court on Monday upheld the legality of the government decision in 2016 to demonetise 86% of the country’s cash in circulation, saying the decision was taken in consultation with the central bank and followed due process.
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.
“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.
The petitioners included lawyers, a political party, co-operative banks and individuals. India’s former finance minister, P Chidambaram was among the lawyers who argued against the note ban measure. In November, 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi personally led the shock move to outlaw 86% of the cash in circulation to target undeclared “black money” and fight corruption.
But the move, widely known as demonetisation, badly hurt India’s cash-dependent economy. Hundreds of thousands of people lined up outside banks for days to exchange their cash savings for legal tender.
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