Attorney general to respond to Ramesh’s plea

The Supreme Court on Monday asked Attorney General (AG) Mukul Rohatgi to respond to senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh’s petition challenging the NDA government’s decision to treat the Aadhaar bill as a money bill.

The bill was passed during the Budget session last month after overruling amendments were moved in Rajya Sabha.

A bench headed by Chief Justice TS Thakur fixed May 6 to hear Rohatgi, though it did not issue any formal notice to him or the Centre. It, however, asked Ramesh’s counsel, senior advocates P Chidambaram and Kapil Sibal, to provide the petition copy to the AG.

“They passed a new statute to give it (Aadhaar) legal backing. This has been passed by calling it a money bill, which is grossly unconstitutional,” Chidambaram told the bench.

The bill providing legislative backing to the 12-digit biometric unique number was passed in the first part of the Budget session.

The Centre wants to make Aadhaar mandatory for seeking all government services, including Direct Benefit Transfer of entitlements into the bank accounts of beneficiaries. Over a billion Indian residents now have an Aadhaar number.

According to Ramesh, Aadhaar cannot be a money bill since it contains a substantial number of provisions that do not pertain to matters described as admissible under such a bill.

A money bill passed in the Lok Sabha, with or without the amendments that the Rajya Sabha recommends, is deemed to have been passed by both Houses of Parliament.

The Congress MP said, “The validity of a law introduced as a money bill, passed only with the approval of the Lok Sabha but impacting the fundamental rights of the citizens and residents, is in grave doubt.”

The CJI’s bench has also sought details of the cases that are pending before the constitution bench.