-Hindustan Times Under the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Act Section 26(2), a recommendation by the RBI’s Central Board precedes any decision to demonetise any series of currency notes. The Supreme Court on Friday asked the central government if the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had informed it that demonetisation will result in the withdrawal of over 86% currency in circulation. Making a query to the Centre as part of its consideration of...

-Hindustan Times Successive governments have “completely destroyed” the independence of the Election Commission of India (ECI) by ensuring no chief election commissioner (CEC) gets the full six-year term to head the poll body since 1996, a Constitution bench in the Supreme Court lamented on Tuesday, adding that absence of a law for appointment of election commissioners (ECs) has resulted in an “alarming trend”. The five-judge bench further remarked that the silence of...

-The Telegraph Decision was kept closely guarded to root out the menace of black money, money laundering, tax evasion and other illegal activities: Modi government The Centre on Wednesday defended the 2016 demonetisation policy, saying “the withdrawal of the legal tender character of a significant portion of total currency value was a well-considered decision” taken after extensive consultations with the RBI. The decision was kept closely guarded to root out the menace of...

-The Telegraph Union government requests adjournment of hearing on a batch of petitions, Justice BV Nagarathna says ‘it’s very embarrassing for the court’ New Delhi: A five-judge constitution bench on Wednesday expressed displeasure over the Union government’s unparalleled request for adjourning the hearing on a batch of petitions challenging the demonetisation announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2016. “Normally, a constitution bench never adjourns like this. We never rise like this once...

-The Telegraph Citizens’ participation in policy-making is an important factor in assessing the quality of democracy Within five days of the announcement of Agnipath, the scheme had been amended 10 times, raising the larger question concerning consultation in policy-making. The Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government has taken a number of policy decisions without public consultation — from demonetisation, which saw 60 changes in 43 days, to GST, which has been...