From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: The Congress on Monday said the Supreme Court’s verdict on demonetisation is silent on its impact and whether its objectives were met or not.
“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. Nothing more, nothing less,” said Congress general secretary communication Jairam Ramesh.
“One Hon’ble Judge (Justice B V Nagarathna) in her dissenting opinion has said that Parliament should not have been bypassed,” he said in a statement.
“It has said nothing on the impact of demonetisation which was a singularly disastrous decision. It damaged the growth momentum, crippled MSMEs, finished off the informal sector and destroyed lakhs and lakhs of livelihoods,” he said.
He also added that “the verdict has nothing to say on whether the stated objectives of demonetisation were met or not.” None of these goals-reducing currency in circulation, moving to cashless economy, curbing counterfeit currency, ending terrorism & unearthing black money-was achieved in significant measure, Jairam said.
“The majority Supreme Court verdict deals with the limited issue of the PROCESS of decision making not with its OUTCOMES. To say that demonetisation has been upheld by the Honourable Supreme Court is totally misleading and wrong,” he added.
