The Lok Sabha Speaker’s decision to declare Aadhaar Bill as a Money Bill attains finality only as far as parliamentarians are concerned and does not prevent the Supreme Court from judicially reviewing the Speaker’s wisdom, senior advocate P. Chidambaram argued before a Constitution Bench led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra on Wednesday.
Privacy issue
The five-judge Bench, which is testing whether the Aadhaar scheme is a violation of the fundamental right to privacy and personal autonomy, had earlier raised doubts about whether it can question the Speaker’s decision to declare the Aadhaar Act as a Money Bill.
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But Mr. Chidambaram, who opened his arguments in a petition filed by Rajya Sabha MP and Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, said the finality of such a decision was confined to only that particular institution and did not extend to courts.
“The decision of the Speaker is only final regarding that institution (Parliament) and not for a court review,” he pointed out.