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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Why demonetisation notification is illegal and violates the Constitution -Namita Wahi

Why demonetisation notification is illegal and violates the Constitution -Namita Wahi

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published Published on Dec 11, 2016   modified Modified on Dec 11, 2016
-The Economic Times

One month after demonetisation, the Supreme Court is hearing several public interest petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the “demonetisation notification”, which declared that Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes would no longer be legal tender post midnight on November 8, 2016.

The preamble to the notification stated that its objective was to eliminate fake currency used for financing terrorism and to address the problem of “unaccounted money” in the economy. The notification permitted unlimited deposit of the now illegal Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, and over the counter exchange of the notes up to a limit of Rs 4,000. The notification also imposed limits on ATM and bank withdrawals. Since then, the government has made many changes to the applicable limits.

According to some estimates, 86% of Indian currency was in the now illegal Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. Since 68% of all transactions in India are cash transactions, drastically restricting the use of 86% of the currency has predictably caused chaos.

Endless queues at banks, reports of slowdown of trade and more than 80 reported deaths have led many to question the wisdom of this move and its efficacy in achieving its objectives visà-vis the costs to the people and abridgement of their rights.

The Supreme Court will not entertain arguments regarding the efficacy of demonetisation since it rightly defers to government on matters of economic policy.

It must, however, decide the legality of this move. The demonetisation notification is illegal because it goes beyond the scope of what is permitted under the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, (RBI Act), the stated source of authority for the notification.

Nor is it saved by Section 35A of the Banking Regulation Act, 1935, as the government has argued in court. There is also a prima facie case of abridgement of fundamental rights to movement Article 19(1)(d); trade or business, Article 19(1)(g); livelihood and, in case of those dead, life (Article 21); equality (Article 14); and the constitutional right to property (Article 300A).

Section 26(2) of the RBI Act empowers the government to declare any series of notes as illegal tender. Twice before, in 1946 and 1978, the government demonetised to address the problem of “unaccounted money”. While the Banking Regulation Act empowers the RBI to issue directions to banks in the “public interest”, that stipulation cannot reasonably justify the continuously shifting restrictions on cash withdrawals and deposits that we have seen in the past month. Nor does it enable the RBI to discriminate between holders and non-holders of bank accounts, as the present notification has done. Such actions require an authorising legislation, either an act of Parliament or by ordinance.

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The Economic Times, 11 December, 2016, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/policy/why-demonetisation-notification-is-illegal-and-violates-the-constitution/articleshow/55916594.cms?from=md


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