Demonetisation is 'illegal', can't be done without legislation: Manish Tewari

Dubbing the Centre's demonetisation move as "illegal", Congress leader Manish Tewari on Wednesday said it cannot be done without legislation, adding that the government chose to do it with executive action and introduce a currency denomination which does not exist in the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Act.

"Demonetisation is illegal. We have been making this point repeatedly. In my respectful submission, you cannot do it without legislation. This government chose to do it with executive action. introduce a currency denomination which does not exist in the RBI Act. I do not know as to where did they specify it. They have imposed arbitrary limits on withdrawal of money which is completely against the rule of law," Tewari told ANI at the sidelines of launching his book 'Decoding a Decade-2006-2016.'

He asserted that at some point in time the court would look at the legality of demonetisation in addition to the inconvenience it has caused to the people.

"According to law you can't even introduce Rs. 2,000 note without amending RBI act," he added.

Talking about his book, the Congress leader said the attempt has been to try and put the entire decade which evolved between 2006 and 2016 in a perspective.

"The reason why we chose 2006-2016 was because a bulk of the UPA and the handover to the next government both got covered. So, I do hope that students of political science who are interested in politics would try and browse through it and make some sense out of some of the momentous developments of the previous decade," he added.

In a surprise late-evening televised address to the nation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 8 scrapped the use of Rs. 500 and 1,000 currency notes.