Madras High Court rejects PIL on demonetisation

The Madras high court has rejected a PIL against government's demonetisation move by Suchitra Vijayan, aBarrister-at-Law, came up, the first bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice R.Mahadevan. The court has provided time till December 15 to the petitioner to file an additional affidavit seeking to raise additional aspect. 

The counsel for the Union Government had pointed out that the challenge to the notification in question has already been rejected by a division bench of the court's Madurai bench.     

However, the petitioner has asked for additional aspects in the matter. "In so far as the first aspect is concerned, that has outrightly to be rejected. In so far as the second aspect is concerned, whether we can examine it or not would depend onwhether firstly the petitioner is able to put forth in the petition as to what were the challenges raised in the earlier petition, how it has been dealt with and what are the additional aspects she seeks to urge," the bench added.     

According to the PIL, government has failed to assess the effects of demonetisation diligently and failed to prepare the country for one the biggest policy implementations in its banking history. The demonetisation of the entire denominationof Rs 500 and 1000 notes was outside the scope of section 26of the RBI Act, it contended. 

(With inputs from agencies)