Friday, November 1st, 2024

A constitutional bench will be formed… Petition in SC on making law with the help of money bill, will the government be embarrassed?


New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear petitions challenging the validity of passing laws like the Aadhaar Act as money bills. Senior advocate and Supreme Court Bar Association chief Kapil Sibal had urged a bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Mishra that the arguments were over and the petitions needed to be listed for hearing. The Chief Justice said that when I form a Constitution bench, I will take a decision. Earlier, the apex court had said that it would constitute a seven-judge bench to consider the issue of validity of passing laws like the Aadhaar Act as money bills. The decision was aimed at resolving the controversy over money bills after the government introduced amendments to the Aadhaar Act and even the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) as money bills. The government had reportedly taken the move to bypass the Rajya Sabha, where it did not have a majority then. A money bill is a bill that can only be introduced in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha cannot amend or reject it. The upper house can only make recommendations, which the lower house may or may not accept.

Congressional response to the Court's decision

Congress party general secretary Jairam Ramesh posted on X on this decision of the Supreme Court. He wrote- In the last 10 years, many bills were declared money bills under Article 110 of the Constitution and passed in Parliament. A prime example of this is the 'Aadhaar' Act of 2016. I had challenged its declaration as a money bill in the Supreme Court and the then Chief Justice in his decision called this declaration a 'fraud on the Constitution'. I had challenged other such cases as well.

The decision by the Chief Justice today to constitute a separate Constitutional Bench to hear petitions on the gross misuse of Article 110 since 2014 is a welcome move. A final decision is expected before he retires in November 2024.


`; articlesDiv.innerHTML += articleHTML; }); } // Initialize and render feeds fetchAndRenderFeeds();

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *