Sitaram Yechury, general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), responded to the Supreme Court’s Constitution bench’s verdict on demonetisation Monday and claimed that the Court had not deemed the decision to be “correct.”
“The Supreme Court only justified that the central government has the right to take the decision of demonetization but has not said that demonetization was right,” Sitaram Yechury said.
The five-judge Constitution bench dismissed a number of petitions that questioned the decision to demonetize the Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 currency notes, upholding the Center’s decision. The panel said that the executive’s economic policy, which included the decision to implement demonetisation, cannot be changed.
Speaking to the media, Sitaram Yechury said, “The Supreme Court has not said that demonetization was right, and a dissenting judge said that the decision taken by the government was to be taken by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), but here the opposite thing happened and the government sought an opinion from the RBI. If the government had to take a decision on demonetization, then it is wrong to bypass the parliament. There was a need to take the opinion of the Parliament, and this is the decision of the dissenting judge, which is correct.
On the impact of demonetisation, the CPI (M) said that it has “ruined India’s economy.”
He added that the administration has not met any of its objectives and reaffirmed the intention and promise behind the introduction of demonetization in the nation.
“The demonetisation took place to bring back the black money and promise to give Rs 15 lakhs to everyone and cease the fake currency. Even the Rs 2,000 note is not working anymore as fake currency has increased a lot. They promised that terrorism would be reduced; see what is happening today in Jammu and Kashmir,” Yechury added.
“The government has not achieved any promise that they made during demonetisation, and the economy has been ruined,” he said further.
