SC to hear Jairam Ramesh’s plea on Aadhaar in July

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has agreed to hear Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member Jairam Ramesh’s plea that the Lok Sabha passed the Aadhaar Bill as a money bill by force of its “brute majority” to prevent the upper house of Parliament from having any say on the bill while it was being debated.

If a bill is not a money bill the Rajya Sabha can suggest amendments to the bill, but if it is a money bill, the Lok Sabha can ignore these amendments as mere recommendations.

A bench led by Chief Justice of India TS Thakur on Tuesday said that it will hear the plea post its summer recess, which will end on June 29, after hearing short arguments from senior advocate P Chidambaram, who alleged that the presiding officer of one House had by wrongly certifying it as amoney bill denied the rights of another House.

“This is a gross violation of rule of law. Rajya Sabha members complained to the chairman, but he said he has no powers,” Chidambaram said. “The law was passed by a brute majority in the Lok Sabha,” he said.