"Have To Answer": Court Lists Note Ban Case For Next Month Amid "Time Waste" Questions

Petitions challenge Constitutional validity of rendering 80% of all notes worthless unless exchanged in sudden announcement by PM Modi in 2016

After noting that there is a line — "Lakshman Rekha" — to how far courts can go on challenges to government policy decisions, the Supreme Court today said it will still hear petitions against the 2016 demonetisation of high-value currency notes. It listed the matter for November 9.

It wants the central government to "keep ready" the files about the decision to ban Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes — over 80 per cent of all notes then in circulation — announced in a sudden, late-evening address by PM Narendra Modi as an "anti-corruption" measure. It also wants the Centre and the Reserve Bank to file responses.

One of the chief questions the court wants to answer is whether the hearings will now be just an "academic" exercise after six years. New high-value notes have since been put into circulation even as people lined up for days to exchange the cancelled notes.

Not that the petitions came late.