The Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court made a big remark on Wednesday during the hearing of the petition against the demonetization in 2016. The court said it is aware of the "lakshman rekha" of judicial review of policy decisions of the government, but will examine the 2016 demonetisation decision to find out if the matter is only an "academic" exercise.
A constitution bench comprising Justice S Abdul Nazeer, Justice BR Gavai, Justice AS Bopanna, Justice V Ramasubramaniam and Justice BV Nagarathna is considering 58 petitions challenging the central government's decision to demonetise Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes.
The Supreme Court has asked the Central Government and the Reserve Bank of India a question on the constitutional validity of demonetisation. The top court also said that it is the duty of the Supreme Court to answer the questions referred to them. The Supreme Court will examine this decision. The next hearing of the case will be on November 9.
Attorney General R. Venkataramani said that unless the Act on Demonetisation is properly challenged, the issue will essentially remain academic. The Demonetization Act was passed in 1978 to provide for the demonetization of certain high denomination notes in the public interest, to check illegal transfer of money harmful to the economy.
The Supreme Court said that in order to declare whether it is academic or infructuous, it needs to investigate the matter as both the parties do not agree. The court said, "In order to answer the issue, we have to do the hearing".
The court bench said, "We always know where the Lakshman Rekha is, but the way it was done, it needs to be investigated. We will have to hear the lawyer to decide."
On the other hand, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Central Government, said that the time of the court should not be wasted on educational issues. Objecting to Mehta's submission, senior advocate Shyam Divan, representing petitioner Vivek Narayan Sharma, said he was surprised by the words "waste of time of the Constitutional Bench" as the previous bench had said that these matters should be referred to a Constitution Bench.
Senior advocate P. Chidambaram, appearing for one of the parties, said the issue is not academic and it is for the top court to decide. He said that a separate Act of Parliament is needed for such demonetisation. On December 16, 2016, a bench headed by the then CJI TS Thakur referred the petition regarding the validity of demonetisation to a larger five-judge bench.
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