The Supreme Court on Wednesday postponed a hearing on a petition challenging the Center’s decision to devalue Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 banknotes in November 2016. V Ramasubramanian and B V Nagarathna have further postponed the hearing to provide full affidavits detailing at the request of Attorney General R. Venkataramani.
Attorney General apologized to the court for failing to file an affidavit, trying to get him a week.
Judge Nagaratna said: Once you start, you don’t level up like that. It is very embarrassing for this court.
Senior advocate Shyam Divan, appearing for the petitioner, said it’s unusual to seek adjournment from a Constitution Bench.
The court subsequently allowed the Centre’s request for time to file its affidavit.
The court is seized of 58 petitions against the Centre’s November 8, 2016 decision to demonetise high-value currency.
The petitioners, opposed to the government’s decision, have said it involved issues of Constitutional importance. They said the question of whether the government could invoke the Reserve Bank of India Act 1934 to devalue all currencies of a particular denomination was very active and if there was no answer the government would.
Before deciding whether the matter was purely academic, the Court examined the processes used and the manner in which the invalidation was carried out.
“Governmental wisdom is one aspect of the problem and we know where Lakshman Rekha is. We have to determine whether the government followed the correct procedure or not or it can such such a decision in future or not…,” the bank said on Oct. 12.