New Delhi, Jan 2: Supreme Court judge Justice BV Nagarathna — the lone woman on the five-judge bench, which upheld Centre’s 2016 decision to demonetise the Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 denomination notes — dissented with the view of four judges on demonetisation, saying that it was unlawful and vitiated.
Authoring a 124-page judgment, she said the Centre could not have exercised power under sub-section (2) of Section 26 of the RBI Act in the issuance of the gazette notification of November 8, 2016.
She declared that the demonetisation exercise was unlawful, since the proposal was initiated by the Centre and not by the central board of the Reserve Bank of India.
She noted that demonetisation could not have been carried out by issuing a notification as contemplated under sub-section (2) of Section 26 of the Act and that the Parliament does indeed have the competence to carry out demonetisation. (IANS)