- The Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court was hearing a petition challenging the demonetisation by the Central government in 2016, for Rs. 500 and Rs.1000 rupee currency notes.
- The court had ordered the Centre on 12.10.2022 to file a comprehensive affidavit and to disclose all relevant documents.
- The bench comprising Justices S Abdul Nazeer, B.R. Gavai, A.S. Bopanna, V. Ramasubramanian, and B. V. Nagarthana noted that the legal issue had not become “academic”.
- Former Finance minister and Senior Advocate P. Chidambaram argued saying, "Where is the application of mind?"
- On 9 November, 2022, R. Venkataramani, Attorney-General sought an extension tofile an affidavit.
- The Bench however remarked that it was embarrassing for a Constitution Bench to adjourn this way.
- The affidavit was filed by the Centre, one week later and stated that the 2016 demonetisation was well-considered and led to benefits.
- Mr. Chidambaram argued that demonetisation is of a higher standard and it was one major economic decision that drastically affected the lives of citizens.
- He further contended that the mildest step taken would have been to stop the issue of certain currency notes. The second opinion was to replace old notes with new notes that have better security and the third opinion was to the extreme of demonetisation.
- Mr. Chidambaram argues that the Central government at that time did not scrutinize and deploy alternate methods to deal with fake currencies but rather took a huge leap and imposed demonetisation.
- He cited the 2018 judgment delivered by Justice Sikri in the Aadhar constitutionality case and quoted the lines "Rules are disproportionate - a mere ritualistic incantation of “money laundering”, “black money” does not satisfy the first test."
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