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Name Of TheBill
Lok Sabha should create consultative mechanism for speaker to
certify a money bill.

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(http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/aadhaar-bill-money-bill-name-of-the-billWritten by M R Madhavan (http://indianexpress.com/prole/columnist/m-r-madhavan/) | Published:April 15, 2016 12:27

am

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The Aadhaar bill was passed by Parliament as a money bill. The Lok Sabha
(http://indianexpress.com/tag/lok-sabha/) rejected the amendments made by the
Rajya Sabha. A writ petition has been filed in the Supreme Court challenging its
classification as a money bill. In this context, it would be instructive to see why
some bills are labelled as money bills and require only the Lower House to pass
them.
India has a bicameral Parliament. The purpose of the second House is to be a
revising chamber. Any legislation must be passed by each House by a simple
majority. This provides a check on hasty decisions.
Following the procedure in the British parliament, our Constitution makes an
exception for money bills. The British parliament, over the centuries, built up
checks against the monarchs power. It required all government expenditure to be
sanctioned by parliament. It also forbade new taxes unless parliament provided for
them by law. Parliament could stop any expenditure plans of the government and
bring it to a standstill. In such a case, the government cannot function and would
be expected to resign. Given that the government requires the confidence of the
Lower House, the corollary is that only the Lower House should have decisionmaking powers on such bills.
In other words, money bills are an exception to the rule that bills need to be passed
by each House. Therefore, there is a need to provide limits on the usage of this
procedure. Our Constitution specifies six conditions for any bill to be a money bill,
and states that the bill should have only these features, or any item incidental to it.
The six conditions pertain to taxes, government borrowings and expenditure.
Erskine Mays Parliamentary Practice says the following. A bill which contains any
of the enumerated matters and nothing besides is indisputably a money bill. If it
contains any other matters, then, unless these are subordinate matters incidental
to any of the matters so contained in the bill, the bill is not a money bill. Further, if
the main object of a bill is to create a new charge on the Consolidated Fund or on
money provided by Parliament, the bill will not be certified if it is apparent that the
primary purpose of the new charge is not purely financial.
In this context, does the Aadhaar bill fit the money bill criteria? The bill provides
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for a mechanism to identify a person using biometrics, and states that this could be
used for providing subsidies or government services. However, it also allows the
Aadhaar system to be used for other purposes. Therefore, it seems to contain
matters other than those that are incidental to expenditure from the Consolidated
Fund. That is, it does not seem to fit the requirement of only the matters listed.
Our Constitution also follows the British procedure that provides the speaker with
the authority to certify a bill as a money bill. However, there is a key difference.
The House of Commons appoints two senior members who must be consulted
before the speaker gives the certificate. In India, the speaker makes the decision on
her own.
Can the speakers decision be challenged? The Constitution says the decision of the
speaker shall be final. However, there are several instances in which Parliaments
decisions have been subjected to judicial review. These include decisions made by
speakers under the anti-defection law. Also, in a recent judgment, a Constitution
bench of the Supreme Court decided that the privilege of legislatures was subject to
judicial review, and repealed a resolution of the Punjab legislative assembly to
expel Amarinder Singh for the rest of its term. It remains to be seen whether the
court will consider the writ petition.
Though the bill has been passed, this issue needs debate as it sets a precedent. An
immediate case is the Finance Bill, 2016, which includes structural changes to the
RBI Act to enable statutory backing for a monetary policy committee. The question
is whether such a bill can be certified as a money bill, which will enable these
amendments to be made without the concurrence of the Rajya Sabha. Perhaps it
may help if the Lok Sabha creates a consultative mechanism before the speaker
certifies a bill as a money bill.
The writer works with PRS Legislative Research, New Delhi.

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Ashok

You cannot adopt British practices blindly. It depends on the character of politicians also.
If you look at the behavior of political parties, where opposition is in strong position, they
do not allow any business to transact. Where govt has upper hand, they do not tolerate
even a lone opposition members. Look at Delhi assembly.
The solution is to retire Rajya Sabha members alongwith dissolution of respective state
assembly and also giving power to state assembly to recall its representative, if working
against the policies of the state.
about 4 hours ago

A
19155

(0)

(0) reply(0)

Ananth

Irrespective of whether we followed some practices of other countries we have to

evaluate each case from the point of view of its own merit. For direct distribution
mechanism to succeed the AADHAR route seems the best bet today. The court has been
putting roadblocks as it hasn't got the statutory sanction. To overcome that the
opposition parties are not cooperating and have made the working of Rajya Sabha a
sham and veer away from its main purpose of being a revising house. The government's

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sham and veer away from its main purpose of being a revising house. The government's
hands have been unnecessarily tied and hence the need to bypass them. Why should the
opposition parties act in a irresponsible fashion particularly when it concerns about
curbing wasteful expenditures. So nitpicking on the bill, its validity, or the mechanism
employed by speaker etc. are of no use unless the opposition political parties are
disciplined. The columnist has completely sidestepped on that main requirement thus
rendering his column directionless and meaningless too.
(1)

about 2 hours ago

(0) reply(0)

ALOKUp Voted
Anand

When AP re-organisation bill was passed just before elections, in the most reprehensible
manner by the Lok Sabha by stalling live coverage, closing the doors, throwing away the
will of the State Assembly to the dustbin and arbitrarily Bill was passed, no courts
including Hon'ble Supreme Court did not feel it necessary to address the issue - where
were people like this author? The bill was passed purely with an eye on elections and
Congress got a sound drubbing. Atleast in the present case, the Adhar Bill was not passed
for any electoral gains primafacie. The sole reason for the Congress to oppose the bill is
they are afraid that the country will develop and the number of poor , their vote bank, will
reduce.

1335

9 minutes ago

(2)

(0) reply(1)

YogeshAnanthUp Voted

TG
6685

Thomas George

The courts rarely take suo-moto cognizance on a matter relating to the Legislature. If
and only if someone petitions the court, the court looks into the matter. It will require
the following considerations -- a) the matter must aect the party petitioning the
court and b) the court must have jurisdiction. The matter is whether the Rajya Sabha
(a constitutional law making body, no matter what your impressions about the
current house are) was deprived of its privilege. If in future, a situation arises where
the Congress has a majority in LS and BJP in the RS, and the LS passes a legislation
that BJP supporters find reprehensible for whatever reason, would you share the
same opposition of the RS as a constitutional body. The point is that democracy is
protected from rulers by requiring stringent conditions to make wholesale changes in
law. It would be in our collective interest not to harm that citing short term gains.
Aer all, India will be here for centuries to come.
(0)

about 2 hours ago

(0) reply(0)

K SHESHU

KS

If rajya sabha has no power on important bills and lok sabha passes any bill of national
importance, especially money bills, what is the use of rajya sabha except being a bunch of
back-door politicians and safety seeking opportunists who can enjoy six years leisure
without work??!!

9315

about 5 hours ago

TG

(0)

(0) reply(1)

Thomas George

Rajya Sabha represents the states (rajya) in central law making because India is a
union of states. Lok Sabha represents the people directly where each member
represents a constituency. The problem in our country is that members of neither LS
or RS truly represent their constituency ie, the people or the state assembly. Every
http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/aadhaarbillmoneybillnameofthebill2754080/
6685

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or RS truly represent their constituency ie, the people or the state assembly. Every
member only answers to their party masters -- and the political party is an extraconstitutional private body as per their own admission in respect to applicability of
RTI.
(0)

about 2 hours ago

(0) reply(0)

Math

Agree with the author lekin, PEHLE US AADMI KA SIGN LEKAR AAO.
1. Who hava made Rajya Sabha a house for Political leaders who fail in elections (Jaitley
included).
2. Who have chosen to be obstructionist because of the tyranny of numbers.
3. Who have raise slogans and placards in the Parliament.
4. Who have passed many bills as money bills in the past (Congress, mostly).

1085

about 7 hours ago

(2)

(0) reply(0)

YogeshanandUp Voted
Ramesh Grover

RG

If speakers decision in such matters is subjected to controls of sorts that the writer
suggests, then one can say 'goodbye' to parliamentary democracy or what exists under
that garb in India. Perhaps that is what is needed - a breakdown of all systems so that
something new may come up. Perhaps, that is what is intended.

100

about 8 hours ago

(1)

(0) reply(2)

YogeshUp Voted
Ananth

The new thing is already there. But breakdown of that is the intention of a group
whose ideas have been thrown to the dustbin by people. But they as well as a section
of media wants to create a facade as if the old system only is the best and should be
brought back. So they want to nullify what people have judged and carried out the
surgery in 2014. They have a democratic right to do so and so is the duty of people
like us to expose their design.

19155

(0)

about 2 hours ago

(0) reply(0)

nandu

consultation is not control , and this dierence has to "understood" clearly

10 minutes ago

(0)

(1) reply(1)

YogeshDown Voted

A
19155

Ananth

Sure enough but what makes people think that the speaker has not consulted the
right quarters. ultimately it is her prerogative, duty and responsibility. The courts
should not try to overreach their functioning.
about 2 hours ago

(0)

(0) reply(0)

Imti

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NameOfTheBill|TheIndianExpress

Imti

Any bill that is good for the nation' development (not family enrichment) should be a
money bill.
Consultations and committees are good for congress schemes where the high command
decides the percentage (to be siphoned) and the committees work around that figure.
about 9 hours ago

(1)

(1) reply(0)

HemantUp Voted
nanduDown Voted
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