Petition seeks review of Supreme Court verdict on demonetisation

New Delhi, February 5

A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking review of its verdict upholding the Centre’s 2016 decision to demonetise the currency notes of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 denomination.

The review petition has been filed by advocate ML Sharma, who was one of the 58 petitioners challenging demonetisation. Sharma contended that the Constitution Bench did not consider his “written arguments” in its verdict and the omission had led to “serious injustice and miscarriage of justice”.

By a majority of 4:1, a five-judge Constitution Bench led by Justice S Abdul Nazeer (since retired) had declared that the November 8, 2016, decision didn’t suffer from any illegality and “courts can’t sit in judgment over such matters of economic policy”. The decision-making process was neither flawed nor hasty, it had said.

However, Justice BV Nagarathna had delivered a dissenting verdict as she found faults with the process of demonetisation. There was no independent application of mind by the Reserve Bank of India in recommending the cancellation of entire Rs 500 and Rs1,000 notes as proposed by the central government, she had said, adding, “Parliament is a miniature of the country…. Parliament, which is the centre of democracy, cannot be left aloof in a matter of such critical importance.”