NEW DELHI - India’s Supreme Court on Monday upheld the legality of the government decision in 2016 to demonetise 86 per cent of the country’s cash in circulation.

It said the decision was taken in consultation with the central bank and followed due process.

A five-judge bench of the country’s top court passed the verdict by a majority on a batch of petitions questioning the move.

One of the five judges wrote a dissenting opinion.

“The... notification dated 8th November 2016 does not suffer from any flaws in the decision-making process,” Justice B.R. Gavai, one of the four judges who agreed on the decision, said in a written opinion.

The petitioners included lawyers, a political party, cooperative banks and individuals.

India’s former finance minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, was among the lawyers who argued against the note ban measure.

In November 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi personally led the shock move to outlaw 86 per cent of the cash in circulation to target undeclared “black money” and fight corruption.

But the move, widely known as demonetisation, badly hurt India’s cash-dependent economy.

Hundreds of thousands of people lined up outside banks for days to exchange their cash savings for legal tender.

It didn’t weed out black money or cash gained through illegal means.

However, there has been an increase in digital payments, a drop in fake notes, and an improvement in tax collections.

Many people also supported demonetisation after Mr Modi framed the decision as a fight for the poor against the corrupt rich.

Monday’s verdict could help Mr Modi build momentum for several state elections in 2023 and a national vote in 2024.

Mr Chidambaram tweeted on Monday that the court’s majority decision “steered clear of the question whether the objectives were achieved”.

Some of the petitioners had argued that the recommendation to ban or declare any series of banknotes invalid should have come from the Reserve Bank of India and not from the government.

India’s main opposition Congress party said Monday’s decision by the top court said nothing about the impact of demonetisation, which the party called a “a singularly disastrous move”.

“The majority Supreme Court verdict deals with the limited issue of the process of decision-making, not with its outcomes,” party spokesman Jairam Ramesh said in a statement. BLOOMBERG, REUTERS