Passing Aadhaar as money Bill a fraud on Constitution: Justice Chandrachud

Even as the five-judge Supreme Court (SC) Bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra declared Aadhaar constitutional by a majority verdict, Justice D Y Chandrachud wrote a strong dissenting note, saying the Aadhaar Act could not have been passed as a money Bill and that this amounted to a fraud on the Constitution.

Chandrachud said the power of the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, to decide whether a Bill is a money Bill, “cannot be untrammelled”. He referred to the bypassing of Rajya Sabha in 2016 as “subterfuge”.

“This debasement of a democratic institution cannot be allowed to pass. Institutions