New Delhi: The Congress on Monday said that the Supreme Court had not upheld the Centre’s controversial 2016 note ban decision, which was disastrous for the economy and took away lakhs of livelihoods. “The majority Supreme Court verdict deals with the limited issue of the process of decision making, not with its outcomes," Congress communications in charge Jairam Ramesh said.
"To say that demonetisation has been upheld by the Supreme Court is totally misleading and wrong," Jairam said shortly after the top court delivered its 4:1 majority verdict on the Centre's 2016 notification to scrap high-value currency notes.
“The Supreme Court has only ruled 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.
"It has said nothing on the impact of demonetisation which was a singularly disastrous decision. It damaged the growth momentum, crippled MSMEs, finished off the informal sector and destroyed lakhs and lakhs of livelihoods,” he said. The Congress leader further said that the verdict had nothing to say on whether the stated objectives of demonetisation were met or not.
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"None of these goals- reducing currency in circulation, moving to cashless economy, curbing counterfeit currency, ending terrorism and unearthing black money-were achieved in significant measure," the Congress leader added.
According to former finance minister P Chidambaram, though everyone was obliged to accept the law once the top court had declared it, "it was necessary to point out that neither the majority had not upheld the wisdom of the decision nor had 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. We are happy that the majority judgement has pointed out the illegality and the irregularities in the demonetisation. It may be only a slap on the wrist of the government but a welcome slap on the wrist," Chidambaram said.
According to the former finance minister, "the dissenting judgement will rank among the famous dissents recorded in the history of the top court. The minority judgement brings out the profound distinction between the plenary legislative power of Parliament and the limited power of the executive government," Chidambaram said.
"We are happy that the minority judgement has emphasised the important role of Parliament in democracy. We hope in the future an unbridled executive will not thrust disastrous decisions on Parliament and the people," he said.
