‘SC cannot review Speaker’s actions’

Govt was responding to plea from Jairam Ramesh on passage of Aadhar law as a ‘Money Bill’

The Centre on Tuesday challenged the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction to examine the Speaker’s authority to declare the Aadhaar law as a ‘Money Bill’ based on a plea filed by Rajya Sabha MP and former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh that the passage of the law is a ‘constitutional fraud.’

In a preliminary hearing before a Bench led by Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur, Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi even questioned Mr. Ramesh’s right to move the Supreme Court under Article 32 of the Constitution, a rare remedy reserved only when a fundamental right is violated by the state.

Representing Mr. Ramesh, senior advocate P. Chidambaram said the passage of the Aadhaar law as a Money Bill in a “brazen and malafide” manner, bypassing the approval of the Rajya Sabha, was a violation of the Basic Rule of Law enshrined in the Constitution, and thus seeking a rare remedy under Article 32 is perfectly justifiable.

Countering Mr. Rohatgi’s argument that Article 32 could then be invoked for every transgression by citing it as a violation of the Rule of Law, Mr. Chidamabaram replied that “passing a non-Money Bill as a Money Bill is not ‘everything’. One House of the Parliament has been deprived of its constitutional authority.”

“Please do not make a caricature of my arguments by saying that a Speaker certifying a non-Money Bill as a Money Bill is ‘everything’,” Mr. Chidambaram said.

The court agreed to hear the matter in detail after its summer vacations.