Demonetisation—SC agrees to hear Centre’s transfer petition plea

The Supreme Court on Monday accepted the Centre’s request seeking the transfer of all public interest litigations (PILs) filed in the various High Courts, challenging the validity of demonetisation, to either the apex court or to a High Court. A bench headed by Chief Justice of India TS Thakur assured Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi that the matter would be heard on November 23.

The Centre had moved the Supreme Court today on the transfer petition. Earlier, the Supreme Court on November 18 had dubbed the long queues outside banks and post offices as a “serious issue” and expressed its reservation on the Centre’s plea then seeking a direction that, apart from the Supreme Court, no other court should entertain petitions challenging the November 8 notification demonetising ₹500 and ₹1,000 currency notes. While contending that the Supreme Court could not shut out people from approaching high courts also as the latter were “more aware of magnitude of the problem in each state”, the bench headed by Chief Justice Thakur had asked the Attorney General to file a transfer petition saying that the apex court could consider transferring all petitions to the Delhi High Court.

The apex court had also on November 15 refused to stay the demonetisation move but had directed the government to submit a report detailing the steps taken to minimise public inconvenience. That matter and the constitutional validity of demonetisation would be heard on November 25.

Many pending PILs on demonetisation

Meanwhile, there have been many PILs filed the various high courts recently, with the Calcutta High Court slamming the Centre over the demonetisation move, saying it was done without sufficient “homework”. The Karnataka High Court, on the other hand, had dismissed a plea by a lawyer observing that it was “a good step as it has checked the circulation of illegal, black and fake money”.

There are already various PILs pending in the apex court too on the demonetisation issue. These include the ones filed by Delhi-based lawyers Vivek Narayan Sharma and Sangam Lal Pandey; and individuals, S Muthukumar and Adil Alvi. CPI national executive member Binoy Viswam too had approached the apex court challenging the constitutional validity of introducing ₹2,000 and ₹500 notes with Devnagari script in its design, his contention being that the script was in "contravention" of Article 343(1) of the Constitution.