Passage of Finance Act as Money Bill: Central government opposes priority hearing before Supreme Court

The Central government on Thursday opposed priority hearing of the Rojer Mathew judgment reference before the Supreme Court..The matter was listed before a seven-judge Constitution Bench for issuing procedural directions.When the matter was acknowledged by the Bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal suggested that the matter be prioritised.However, Solicitor General of India (SGI) Tushar Mehta opposed prioritisation of the case based on political exigencies.In response, the CJI stated that the Court would take a call..The case deals with the question of whether the Finance Act, 2017, which introduced certain amendments to the Finance Act, 1994, can be considered a "money bill" under Article 110 of the Indian Constitution. The question before the Court is whether the amendments introduced by the Finance Act, 2017 fell within the purview of a money bill and whether the procedure employed in passing the Bill was valid..In November 2019, a five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court had ordered that the validity of passage of the Finance Act 2017 as a money bill should be decided by a larger bench.The decision came in a batch of petitions concerning the functioning of tribunals and a challenge to the Finance Act, 2017, which had revamped the schemes governing the functioning of tribunals..An earlier decision regarding passage of the Aadhaar Act as a money bill had been approved by the Supreme Court.Since that decision was also made by a five-judge bench, the Supreme Court in its 2019 decision decided to refer this matter to a seven-judge bench.Interestingly, CJI Chandrachud, who was then a puisne judge, had dissented in the Aadhaar case and said that the Aadhaar Act could not have been passed as a money bill..Follow Bar and Bench channel on WhatsAppDownload the Bar and Bench Mobile app for instant access to the latest legal news.