On November 8, 2016, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a shock announcement that made 86 percent of India’s currency notes invalid.
After the announcement, the lives of many people changed overnight as people lost money since their currency notes became invalid.
According to calculations, 21 billion currency notes had been replaced overnight, but the government printing presses were able to print only up to 3 billion notes a month.
Tens of people reportedly died in the days after Modi’s shock announcement due to the hardships that followed as desperate people jostled with each other, often sparking fights and disputes in the long queues outside banks and ATMs.
People queued for hours for weeks, but they couldn’t withdraw the money as the ATM had run out of money.
According to reports, even bank employees ostensibly died due to the stress of working round-the-clock after the announcement.
But according to the Supreme Court of India, hardships held no water, and the Modi government’s decision to demonetize high-denomination currency notes overnight couldn’t be called unreasonable as it upheld the move after hearing 58 petitions.
The Court says that individual interests must yield to the larger public interest sought to be achieved by the impugned notification.
India Court Says Demonetization Was Legal But Victims Disagree
I'm a senior member at Forsige covering topics on diplomacy and foreign policy relating to Asia and the World.