DeMo is valid!

New Delhi: A fivejudge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court on Monday upheld the government’s 2016 decision to demonetise Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes, saying the decision was about executive policy and cannot be reversed. The court rejected the 58 petitions challenging demonetisation and said that the decision-making process of the government was not flawed. The judgment, authored by Justice BR Gavai, was agreed to by Justices S Abdul Nazeer, AS Bopanna, and V Ramasubramanian. Justice BV Nagarathna faulted demonetisation in her dissenting judgment but did not quash it. Gavai said though there was consultation between Modi govt, RBI for 6 months, indicating a “reasonable nexus between the measures undertaken and the object sought to be achieved” and, therefore, notes ban notification passed test or doctrine of “proportionality”.