To say that Supreme Court upheld demonetisation is misleading, says Congress

Congress released a statement on the Supreme Court's verdict on demonetisation. It said the judgement "deals with the limited issue of the process of decision making not with its outcomes. (Therefore), to say that demonetisation has been upheld by the Honourable Supreme Court is totally misleading and wrong."

A five-judge bench of the Supreme Court dismissed a batch of petitions challenging the Union government's 2016 decision to demonetise currency notes of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500. Despite one dissenting voice, it held that the Centre has the power to demonetise all series of notes.

The Congress noted in a statement that the court said nothing about the impact of demonetisation, "which was a singularly disastrous decision".

Soon after the verdict, Congress released a statement taking a dig at the government over the "disastrous" impact of the demonetisation. The party said the Supreme Court judgement only "pronounced on whether Section 26(2) of RBI Act, 1934 was correctly applied or not before announcing demonetisation on November 8 2016...Nothing more, nothing less."

"The Supreme Court has only pronounced on whether Section 26(2) of RBI Act, 1934 was correctly applied or not before announcing demonetisation on November 8 2016...," Congress General Secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh said.

Ramesh further noted that the verdict said nothing "on whether the stated objectives of demonetisation were met or not".

"None of these goals - reducing currency in circulation, moving to a cashless economy, curbing counterfeit currency, ending terrorism and unearthing black money-was achieved in significant measure," Ramesh said. He said the demonetisation "damaged the growth momentum, crippled MSMEs, finished off the informal sector and destroyed lakhs and lakhs of livelihoods".

Meanwhile, P Chidambaram, in a series of tweets, said it is necessary to point out that the majority has not upheld the wisdom of the decision; "nor has the majority concluded that the stated objectives were achieved. In fact, the majority has steered clear of the question whether the objectives were achieved at all".

Meanwhile, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Amit Malviya explained the "far-ranging" impact of demonisation in India. He said over Rs 5 lakh crore has now "found its way to the formal economy". "Today, billions of transactions happen through the digital medium, thereby incentivising and rewarding those who are honest, who make an honest living, particularly the poor and the middle class," he told News 18.

He said the only people affected by demonetisation were the corrupt ones who made "a lot of illegitimate wealth", and "that is what the Opposition was pitching for". He said the demonetisation "clearly made a demarcation between those who were honest and those who were dishonest and corrupt. The Opposition seems to be siding with the who are corrupt".

Another BJP leader, Ravi Shankar Prasad, hailed the Supreme Court's verdict on Mondays and said that a year after the demonetisation, the "tax collection was higher by 10 percent". He said, "2,38,000 shell companies were caught and transactions was stopped after the the note ban."

"Informal sectors involved reduced from 52 percent to nearly 20 percent," he noted, saying the demonetisation helped in "breaking the backbone" of terrorism in the country.