SC to pronounce verdict on pleas against demonetisation on Jan 2

The Supreme Court is scheduled to pronounce its judgment on Monday on a batch of pleas challenging the governments 2016 decision to demonetise currency notes of Rs 1000 and Rs 500 denominationsA fivejudge Constitution bench headed by Justice S A Nazeer who will retire on January 4 is likely to pronounce its verdict on the matter on January 2 when the top court will reopen after its winter breakAccording to Mondays cause list of the top court there will be two separate judgements in the matter which will be pronounced by Justices B R Gavai and B V Nagarathna It is not clear whether the two judgements will be concurring or dissentingBesides Justices Nazeer Gavai and Nagarathna the other members of the fivejudge bench are Justices A S Bopanna and V RamasubramanianThe top court had on December 7 directed the Centre and the Reserve Bank of India RBI to put on record the relevant records related to the governments 2016 decision and reserved its verdictIt heard the arguments of Attorney General R Venkataramani the RBIs counsel and the petitioners lawyers including senior advocates P Chidambaram and Shyam DivanAlso read SC to hear pleas challenging state laws regulating conversions due to interfaith marriageCalling the scrapping of the Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes deeply flawed Chidambaram had argued that the government cannot on its own initiate any proposal relating to legal tender which can only be done on the recommendation of the RBIs central boardResisting the apex courts attempt to revisit the 2016 demonetisation exercise the government had said the court cannot decide a matter when no tangible relief can be granted by way of putting the clock back and unscrambling a scrambled eggThe RBI had earlier admitted in its submissions that there were temporary hardships and that those too are an integral part of the nationbuilding process but there was a mechanism by which the problems that arose were solvedIn an affidavit the Centre told the top court recently that the demonetisation exercise was a wellconsidered decision and part of a larger strategy to combat the menace of fake money terror financing black money and tax evasionThe Supreme Court has heard a batch of 58 petitions challenging the demonetisation exercise announced by the Centre on November 8 2016This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever