Ex Law Minister Says Demonetisation Didn't Work, Asks Who Should Apologise

Rajya Sabha MP and former law minister Kapil Sibal on Tuesday said the government had failed to achieve any of the objectives of the demonetisation exercise and asked who should apologise for it.

Attacking the government a day after the Supreme Court upheld the legality of the of 2016 decision, Kapil Sibal listed a series of objectives of demonetisation and said they all failed.

"Demonetisation. Majority of Supreme Court Upholds Process. Objectives of demonetisation: curb black money, reduce tax evasion, stop circulation of fake currency, curb terrorism, tackle problems of corruption. All failed. Who should apologise?" he asked on Twitter.

In a big win for the Narendra Modi government, the Supreme Court in a 4:1 verdict held that demonetisation is not bad in law merely because some citizens suffered through hardships. The decision does not suffer from illegality as there was consultation between the RBI and the Centre for a period of six months before the notification under challenge was issued, it said.

It stated that the decision-making process was neither flawed nor hasty and it is "not relevant" whether the stated objectives were achieved or not.

The shock move to demonetise 86 per cent of the country's cash in circulation overnight in a bid to tackle black money and corruption was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a televised address on November 8, 2016.

The prime minister had cited several reasons while announcing his decision to demonetise higher denomination currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 on November 8, 2016.

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