PIL filed in Madras HC seeking to declare demonetisation notification illegal

The Madras High Court today posted a PIL, seeking a direction to the Union Government to declare as illegal the notification issued on demonetisation, for further hearing to December 15.

Chennai, Nov 25: The Madras High Court today posted a PIL, seeking a direction to the Union Government to declare as illegal the notification issued on demonetisation, for further hearing to December 15.

When the PIL filed by Suchitra Vijayan, a Barrister-at-Law, came up, the first bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice R.Mahadevan, said 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.

The petitioner then sought to make submissions that the matter was not argued well on the broader issues and she sought to raise some additional issues.

"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 on whether 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 denomination of Rs 500 and 1000 notes was outside the scope of section 26 of the RBI Act, it contended.

PTI