Demonetisation: Supreme Court to hear government's plea

New Delhi: The Supreme Court which has not taken the central government's decision to demonetise high currency notes kindly and which is far from happy for rejection of a number of names for judges recommended by the Collegium will hear the request made by the government to club all petitions filed in different high courts in the country challenging banning of notes on Wednesday.

From the observation made by the apex court on the issue it is generally believed that the government is unlikely to get any relief. The court has observed that if the situation does not improve there may be riots in the country. In the notice it has also asked what measures have been taken by it to ease the crisis created by the demonetisation.

The court has also sought its opinion on the petitions in other courts. Why does it not want other courts to hear the petition? it has asked.

The states where the order of the government have been challenged include Bombay, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Petitioners in these states have stated that the order has created a lot of hardships and that the worst sufferers are the common men and women.

It may be recalled that currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 denominations have been scrapped since November 9 The announcement about it was made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 8.

The case will be heard by the bench consisting of chief justice T S Thakur and D Y Chandrachud . The plea for joint hearing of the case was made on behalf of the government by Attorney general Rohatgi.

Also read: Congress VP Rahul Gandhi attacks PM for his absence in Parliament