Can examine the manner in which decision was taken: SC

The top court was hearing a batch of 58 petitions challenging the demonetisation exercise announced by the Centre on November 8, 2016. 

MP  | 6 Dec 2022 | New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday said limited scope of a judicial review in economic policy matters does not mean that court will fold its hands and sit back, observing that the manner in which a decision is taken by the government can always be examined. The top court was hearing a batch of 58 petitions challenging the demonetisation exercise announced by the Centre on November 8, 2016. 

During the hearing, the Reserve Bank of India(RBI) submitted that "temporary hardships" were there and that they are also an integral part of the nation-building process but there was a mechanism by which problems that arose were solved. 

A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Justice S A Nazeer said legal compliance of an economic policy can be examined by a constitutional court. "Court will not go into the merits of the decision taken by the government. But it can always go into the manner the decision was taken. 

But, just because it is an economic policy, does not mean court will fold its hands and sit back. "With regard to merits of the decision, it is for the government to know, in its wisdom, what is best for the people. But what was taken on record, whether all procedures were followed we can look into," the bench, also comprising Justices B R Gavai, A S Bopanna, V Ramasubramanian, and B V Nagarathna, said. 

The observations came after senior advocate Jaideep Gupta, appearing for the RBI, defended the demonetisation exercise and said there was no procedural lapse in the decision making. 

"Judicial review cannot be countenanced in economic policy measure unless found to be unconstitutional. Economically relevant factors in economic policy making are best left to experts," Gupta submitted. 

Rebutting the submission of the petitioners that citizens had to face severe hardships during demonetisation, the RBI counsel said elaborate measures were put in place to remonetise the economy. 

"If the government is in such readiness to deal with the decision, then to call it thoughtless is not correct. It has also been stated that whenever a problem arose, government took cognisance. 

"Temporary hardships were there. Temporary hardships are also an integral part of the nation-building process. Some of the hardships may not have been anticipated. But we had a mechanism by which problems that arose were solved," Gupta said. 

During the hearing, the top court also sought details regarding the quorum in the RBI's Central Board meeting that recommended the demonetisation. 

https://www.millenniumpost.in/nation/can-examine-the-manner-in-which-decision-was-taken-sc-501389