New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday said that the exercise of demonetisation falls within the ambit of sound social and economic policy by the executive as well as the legislature and ruled that the court is empowered to change the policy decisions of the government prepared in consultation with domain experts. should avoid. , with its views.
The five-judge constitution bench held that “the court must have respect for legislative decision in matters relating to social and economic policies and unless the exercise of executive power appears to be manifestly arbitrary” He shouldn’t interfere.”
Writing the majority judgment, Justice Gavai said that constitutional courts do not have the necessary competence and expertise to adjudicate such economic issues.
“It is not possible for the court to assess or even evaluate as to what will be the effect of a particular course of action and the same is left to the wisdom of experts,” said the judgment-writer, appearing for himself and Justice S. Abdul Nazeer, a S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian.
The SC said, “In any case, errors of judgment noticed by the government in retrospective review are not subject to judicial review. In such cases, legislative and quasi-legislative authorities are entitled to a free play, and unless the action patent Not prone to illegality, manifest or apparent arbitrariness, the court should be slow to intervene.”
“It is not the function of this Court or any other to pass judgment on such matters of economic policy and they must necessarily leave it to the Government to decide in such matters with regard to the prediction of final results, which even experts take seriously.” Courts cannot be expected to decide them definitively without the assistance of experts,” Justice Gavai said.
SC said that RBI plays an important role in economic and monetary policy and management and regulation of currency. “The Center is the best judge as it has all the inputs regarding fake currency, black money, terror financing and drug trafficking. Thus, what measures are to be taken to curb the menace of fake currency, black money and terror”. It is better to leave the financing to black money and terror financing to the discretion of the Center in consultation with the RBI.” “Can it be said that there is not a proper relationship with the three objectives achieved in demonetizing the high denomination bank notes of Rs 500 and Rs 100? There is a reasonable nexus. Issues of counterfeit currency bank notes, black money, drug trafficking and terror financing. As such, the second test is satisfied: said the majority judgement.
