Will examine Right to Privacy verdict before hearing Aadhaar plea: SC

Aadhaar Bill was discussed and passed by the Lok Sabha on March 11 last year

The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it would first go through the crucial judgement on privacy before taking a call on Congress leader Jairam Ramesh's challenge to the Lok Sabha Speaker's decision to certify a bill to amend the Aadhaar law as a money bill.

The plea was mentioned before a bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices P C Pant and D Y Chandrachud for an early hearing, but the apex court said it would first peruse the judgement delivered by its nine-judge constitution bench declaring the right to privacy a fundamental right.

"You mention it on Friday (September 1). We will also read the judgement," CJI Misra said.

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

Observing that the issue was "important and serious" and it did not want to take a call on it in haste, the court had told the counsel appearing for Ramesh to prepare his case by taking into account all the objections raised by the Centre.

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

Ramesh had earlier claimed in the top 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 last year.

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

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.