The government is increasingly resorting to the money bill route to avoid the Rajya Sabha having any say in the legislation making process. Since the BJP-led government has no majority in the Rajya Sabha, it has been resorting to the device of the “Money Bill” to overcome this hurdle. All democratic forces must extend support to the demand that the misuse of the money bill be ended forthwith.

The Modi government is systematically downgrading the Rajya Sabha by misusing the definition of “Money Bill” to get legislations passed in parliament by bypassing the upper house.  

Last year, the Aadhar Bill was passed by parliament.  This bill was termed as a money bill by the speaker of the Lok Sabha.  As per the constitution, Article 110 sets out the criteria for a money bill.  These relate to the imposition of taxes or matters related to the Consolidated Fund of India.  The Aadhar legislation, which sought to link a Unique Identification Number to the delivery of services by the State, could at no stretch be considered a money bill.  Yet, the speaker decided so. A money bill cannot be amended by the Rajya Sabha and the bill has to be returned in fourteen days. The Aadhar bill, thus, circumvented the scrutiny and amendments by the Rajya Sabha.

Following this step, the government is increasingly resorting to the money bill route to avoid the Rajya Sabha having any say in the legislation making process.  When the Finance Bill 2016 was adopted in the Lok Sabha, it contained an amendment to the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA).  This amendment was to treat subsidiaries of foreign companies in India as Indian companies. This amendment to the FCRA does not come under the definition of a money bill. But it was tagged along with the finance bill, which is a money bill. This amendment was to overcome the Delhi High Court verdict which held that the BJP and the Congress had violated the law with regard to receiving foreign contributions.

If it had been taken up as an amendment to the FCRA separately, then it would have been required to be passed by the Rajya Sabha too.  Since the BJP-led government has no majority in the Rajya Sabha, it has been resorting to the device of the “Money Bill” to overcome this hurdle.

In the current Finance Bill of 2017, there are amendments to the RBI Act, the Income Tax Act and the Representation of the People Act to enable the issuance of electoral bonds.  This has been touted as a measure to cleanse political funding.  However, this has nothing to do with taxes or the Consolidated Fund of India and these amendments cannot come under the purview of a money bill.  

That the Modi government is consciously using this device of money bill was evident from the statement of the finance minister, Arun Jaitley, who had said in August 2015 regarding the stalemate in parliament that “If the stalemate continues, then a lot of legislation would have to be framed as Money Bill”.  

As per the constitutional provision, in Article 110, it is the speaker who makes the determination about a money bill. By getting the speaker to decide various legislations as money bills, the government has succeeded in violating the constitutional scheme by downgrading the Rajya Sabha.

In this budget session, three Goods and Services Tax legislations are to be taken up – the Central GST law, the Integrated GST law and the Compensation law.  The GST is directly connected to centre-state relations and the sharing of resources between the centre and the states.  The Rajya Sabha, as the council of states, must have a vital say in the matter. But the Modi government, despite a strong demand in the Rajya Sabha during the discussion on the GST Constitutional Amendment Bill that the GST laws that follow should not be declared as money bills, is now planning to get these legislations declared as money bills. Such a step will be a gross constitutional impropriety.  

The Supreme Court is hearing a petition by the Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh challenging the passing of the Aadhar Bill as a money bill.  Since the speaker is the final authority in the matter of deciding a money bill, the Court has the difficult task to decide whether there are substantive grounds for it to intervene in a legislative procedure within parliament.  

What is required, however, is for the Rajya Sabha to take a collective stand against its being downgraded in this shoddy manner. All democratic forces must extend support to the demand that the misuse of the money bill be ended forthwith.