Budget before polls gets green light from SC

Noting that there is “nothing concrete” to back the notion that presentation of the annual budget can sway the minds of people during the Assembly polls, the Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a petition seeking the postponement of the Union budget till the Assembly elections in five States are over.

“Presentation of the Central budget has nothing to do with State Assembly elections… you have not presented even a single concrete illustration to suggest that Central budget can shake the minds of voters in a State,” Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar said, addressing Supreme Court advocate Manohar Lal Sharma.

Mr. Sharma contended that policies like giving homes to the economically-deprived in States introduced in the annual budget influence people to vote in a particular fashion. “They present schemes like these in the budget to control the minds of the citizens. These schemes declared during election time are against the Model Code of Conduct,” the lawyer argued. “What do you mean by ‘they’? So it is against ‘you’ against ‘they’. We are not here for that sort of thing. Bring us a proposition of law to bolster your notions, we will look into it. Four times we gave you an opportunity to bring us something concrete, you have not brought anything,” the Bench, also comprising Justices N.V. Ramana and D.Y. Chandrachud, responded.

At one point, the Chief Justice called the petition’s interpretation of constitutional law as ‘absurd’. “Take a situation where Party ‘A’ is in power in the Centre and people may think if we vote for that party in the State, money for welfare schemes will come to the State. Is that an excuse for a petition to be filed seeking the ban on the party to contest the State polls?” Chief Justice Khehar asked.

The PIL has also sought a direction to strip the BJP of its ‘lotus’ party symbol on the grounds that it violated the model code of conduct by presenting the budget after the declaration of the dates of the upcoming Assembly elections for alleged violation of the model code in the five States.

In an earlier hearing, the Supreme Court on Friday had found nothing wrong in the government's move to advance the presentation of the budget in Oarliament by almost month, on February 1.

“So what is the big deal in that? It is only the presentation of the budget. Everybody will get know a little in advance on what the government is going to do. Any problems, everybody will get a due chance to object,” Chief Justice Khehar had observed.