SC rejects Jairam Ramesh plea against Aadhaar Act being certified as money bill

The Supreme Court Wednesday rejected Congress leader Jairam Ramesh's plea challenging the passing of the Aadhaar Act as a money bill, saying the decision was valid as the expenditure for the benefits under the scheme would come out of the Consolidated Fund of India.

A three-judge majority view of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A K Sikri and A M Khanwilkar said the main function of Aadhaar was to provide subsidy and benefits to the poor and the downtrodden and to avail them, such persons would have to get enrolled under the scheme.

"It follows that authentication under Section 7 would be required as a condition for receipt of a subsidy, benefit or service only when such a subsidy, benefit or service is taken care of by Consolidated Fund of India," it said.

Justice Ashok Bhushan, who wrote a separate but concurring judgement, also agreed that the Aadhaar Act has been rightly passed as a money bill, but said the Lok Sabha Speaker's decision to certify the Aadhaar Bill 2016 as a money bill was not immune from judicial review.

However, the lone dissenting judge, Justice D Y Chandrachud said the Aadhaar Act "could not have been passed as money bill" and doing so would amount to a "fraud on the Constitution" and the law was, therefore, liable to be struck down.

He said that bypassing the Rajya Sabha to pass the Aadhaar Act "amounted to subterfuge" and was "violative of Article 110 of the Constitution" and added that the Speaker's decision to certify a bill as a money bill, can be subjected to judicial review.

Differing with him, the majority judgement, said Article 110 of the Constitution defined a money bill and section 7 of the Aadhaar Act, which provided for linking of the demographic and biometric data for availing subsidies and benefits under government schemes, satisfied the constitutional provision.

"We, thus, hold that the Aadhaar Act is validly passed as a 'money bill'," the three judges of the bench said.

The apex court had in February 2017 observed that it was "tentatively not convinced" with Ramesh's grounds to challenge the Lok Sabha Speaker's decision to certify the Aadhaar bill as a money bill.

The Centre had opposed the plea saying it fulfilled the criteria as the expenditure for the welfare schemes had to be drawn from the Consolidated Fund of India.

Ramesh had earlier claimed in the apex court that the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Bill, 2016 was certified as a money bill to avoid its scrutiny by the Rajya Sabha which does not have any say on such legislations.

The Bill was discussed and passed by the Lok Sabha on March 11, 2016.

It was taken up in the Rajya Sabha on March 16, 2016, and several amendments were made to it.

Following this, the bill was returned the same evening to the Lok Sabha, which rejected all the amendments adopted by the Upper House and passed it without any of these changes.