"Attempt To Twist, Misinform": Law Minister Slams Congress Over Note Ban

Law Minister Kiren Rijiju on Monday accused the Congress of attempting to "twist" the issue of demonetisation and "misinform" people after opposition leaders played down the Supreme Court verdict upholding the government's 2016 decision.

In a series of tweets, he also slammed P Chidambaram for projecting the dissenting verdict in the 4:1 majority decision as a "slap on the wrist" of the government.

"The 'New Rule' for Congress Party: One Judge minority observation is the Supreme Court ruling and four Judges decision is not a SC decision! They will go back to all SC minority decisions to uphold them as the laws of the land," he said, in a swipe at the former finance minister who is also a lawyer.

Mr Chidambaram had claimed that the dissenting verdict on demonetisation is a "slap on the wrist" of the government as it has pointed out the "illegality and irregularities" in the decision.

Mr Rijiju asserted that "the Supreme Court never examines the impact of a decision like demonetisation. That question could never have been raised for consideration of the court as it is essentially for the executive. P Chidambaram knows he's making a political argument when he states that the objectives were not met, as neither the majority judgment nor even the minority judgment has accepted the said contention, Mr Rijiju added.

"The Congress' attempt to twist the issue and misinform people is exposed", the law minister said, adding that its "malicious" efforts to undo the legitimate action of an elected government will not succeed and that Chidambaram had "failed" again.

He said his request to the Congress is that it should not misinform citizens.

Mr Rijiju's predecessor and another BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad also slammed the Congress leaders, especially Chidambaram.

They are "ignoring with impunity the majority verdict to make incharitable and scandalous" statements, he said. The dissenting judge has also said the policy was well-intentioned, Prasad added.

Reacting to the apex court verdict, the Congress said it is "misleading and wrong" to say the Supreme Court has upheld demonetisation. It said the majority apex court verdict on the matter deals with the limited issue of the process of decision-making not with its outcomes.

The verdict has nothing to say on whether the stated objectives of demonetisation were met, AICC general secretary Jairam Ramesh said.

Mr Rijiju said the positive impact of demonetisation like increase in income tax, curbing black money which "disrupted" terror financing, disclosure of bogus companies and boost to direct transfer of benefits to the needy are all in the public domain.

"India's cashless pivot in UPI (Unified Payments Interface) is being celebrated by the world. Our citizens know this & showed that trust through the ballot towards PM Narendra Modi," he said.

The Supreme Court in a 4:1 majority verdict has upheld the government's 2016 decision to demonetise Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 denomination notes, saying the decision-making process was not flawed.

Justice B V Nagarathna dissented from the majority judgment of the Constitution bench headed by Justice S A Nazeer and said the scrapping of the Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 series notes had to be done through legislation and not through a notification. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)