SC questions passage of Aadhaar Act as Money Bill

SC questions passage of Aadhaar Act as Money Bill

What has happened?

The Supreme Court on Wednesday questioned the government’s justification for passing the Aadhaar Act as a Money Bill

SC countered govt’s argument on any body corporate

That the sole intent of the Aadhaar Act is to act as a weapon for delivering subsidies to targeted beneficiaries, the Constitution Bench pointed to Section 57 of the Act.

Section 57

Nothing contained in this Act (Aadhaar Act) shall prevent the use of Aadhaar number for establishing the identity of an individual for any purpose, whether by the State or any body corporate or person

Government’s stance

• The Act might have several “ancillary provisions,” but taken in its entirety the Aadhaar Act comes within the ambit of the definition of Money Bill under Article 110 of the Constitution
• The Act contemplates the plight of 300 million people in the country living below the poverty line
• Not a single provision in the Act is unnecessary or unrelated to the main purpose/pith and substance of the Act, which is giving subsidies

Money bill conditions under Article 110

A Bill shall be deemed to be a Money Bill if it contains only provisions dealing with all or any of the following matters, namely

(a) The imposition, abolition, remission, alteration or regulation of any tax;

(b) The regulation of the borrowing of money or the giving of any guarantee by the Government of India, or the amendment of the law with respect to any financial obligations undertaken or to be undertaken by the Government of India;

(c) The custody of the consolidated Fund or the Contingency Fund of India, the payment of moneys into or the withdrawal of moneys from any such Fund;

(d) The appropriation of moneys out of the consolidated Fund of India;

(e) The declaring of any expenditure to be expenditure charged on the Consolidated Fund of India or the increasing of the amount of any such expenditure;

(f) The receipt of money on account of the Consolidated Fund of India or the public account of India or the custody or issue of such money or the audit of the accounts of the Union or of a State; or

(g) Any matter incidental to any of the matters specified in sub clause (a) to (f)