Supreme Court notices to Centre on Money Bill misuse plea

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court issued notices to the Centre on Tuesday after agreeing to examine Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member Jairam Ramesh’s plea that the government amended the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) repeatedly since 2015 by way of money bills so as to negate the Rajya Sabha’s say over such amendments.

A money bill is introduced only in the Lok Sabha and is transmitted to the Rajya Sabha, which has 14 days to give its opinion. However, the Rajya Sabha cannot amend or reject the bill and it is up to the Lok Sabha to accept its proposals.

Ramesh, though his lawyer P Chidambaram, contended that the government had misused the provision to run roughshod over the Upper House of Parliament. By pushing through non-money matters as money bills the government kept the opposition from moving any amendments, he argued.


This was an argument that was raised during the Aadhaar debate as well, when the government had made changes to the PMLA to make the Aadhaar linking with PAN compulsory.