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Passage of laws as money bills: Congress seeks verdict before CJI's retirement in Nov
Jul-15-2024

The Congress welcomed the Supreme Court (SC) agreeing to consider a submission for setting up a constitution bench to hear pleas challenging the validity of passage of laws like the Aadhaar Act as money bills, and hoped that a final decision would be given before CJI DY Chandrachud retires in November this year. 

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who also heads the Supreme Court Bar Association, urged the bench including Chief Justice of India (CJI) Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Mishra that the pleadings are complete and the petitions needed to be listed for hearing.  The CJI said, ‘I will take the call when I form the constitution benches.’

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said, ‘In the last ten years many Bills have been bulldozed through Parliament by having them declared 'Money Bills' under Article 110 of the Constitution. A good example of this is the Aadhar Act of 2016.’ Jairam Ramesh reiterated his earlier challenge to this categorization in the Supreme Court, where the current CJI had described it as a 'fraud on the Constitution' in a dissenting judgment. 

Earlier, SC had said it would constitute a seven-judge bench to consider the issue of validity of passage of laws like the Aadhaar Act as a money bill. This move seeks to address the controversy surrounding money bills, noting that the government had categorized bills, including amendments to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, as money bills to bypass the Rajya Sabha, where it lacked a majority. A money bill is legislation that can only be introduced in the Lok Sabha. The Rajya Sabha cannot amend or reject it; it can only make recommendations, which the Lok Sabha may or may not accept.


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