No riot-like situation post-demonetisation
The Supreme Court ought to have refrained from using extreme terms such as “riots” while advising the Union Government to quickly end the people's suffering as a result of the demonetisation drive. Admittedly, the apex court had earlier declined to stay the Government's decision, saying it wouldn't intervene in a policy move. It has also, and correctly, asked the Centre to urgently take steps for addressing the inconvenience caused to the public as a consequence of the decision. The court has a right to intervene and ensure that people are not treated unjustly, and to that extent it has considered and admitted a petition by a bunch of petitioners on the matter.
It also had the right to question the Government on scaling down the daily cash exchange limit from Rs4,500 to Rs2,000 at a time when the court suggested an increase, instead. However, warning the Government of “riots” in case the issue isn't resolved soon, is hyperbolic. In the first place, there is no riot-like situation anywhere in the country. Even people standing in serpentine queues to collect their money — with many of them returning empty-handed — have not erupted in anger against the Government's decision. On the contrary, most of them have backed the move as a step in the right direction: To flush out black money the rich hoard and check terror and drug funding. While political leaders such as West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal have been warning of public uprising, they are actually using the situation to instigate the people to come on the streets and pressure the Government to recall the decision. They have a clear political agenda, which is to corner the BJP-led Government, even on issues that are good for the national cause. But the Supreme Court is above these petty considerations, and it must not create needless panic.
What the two-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India TS Thakur has ended up doing by its ‘riot' remark is inadvertently offering the counsel for the petitioners, who is also a senior Congress leader, an opportunity to slam the Government for its lack of capacity to “print new currency notes” and thus having put the people to “untold harassment”. In rejecting the Centre's plea to restrain other courts in the country to take up petitions on the demonetisation issue, the apex court said it could not “shut out people from going to courts”. The silver lining is that the Bench has asked the Union Government to file a separate petition on the matter, to which the Attorney General of India has readily agreed. There's no doubt that multiple litigations across the country will be an added headache for a Government already struggling to provide relief to the people. Besides, they will complicate the legal process itself. Since the next hearing of the case has been fixed for November 25, it is to be hoped that the crisis will have eased considerably by then.