NEW DELHI: Congress MP Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday challenged all the amendments made to the anti-money laundering law since 2015 in the Delhi High Court saying they were in violation of the Constitution as they were enacted as money bills.
In his petition, which was listed for hearing before a bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V K Rao, the Rajya Sabha MP said that before the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government came to the Centre such amendments were part of an ordinary bill.
A money bill is a piece of legislation which can be introduced only in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha cannot amend or reject it. The Upper House can only make recommendations which may or may not be accepted by the Lower House. The bench reserved its verdict. Senior advocate P Chidambaram and advocate Abhishek Jebraj, appearing for the Congress leader, told the court that the amendments made to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) were “unconstitutional” and “illegal” as they have no relation to the money bill provisions in Article 110 of the Constitution.
“Passing the impugned amendments by way of a Money Bill is grossly illegal and is expressly ultra vires the Constitution of India. Such action bypasses the authority of the Upper House and is a desecration of bicameralism which forms an invaluable part of the basic structure of the Constitution,” the petition said.
Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Maninder Acharya and the central government’s standing counsel Amit Mahajan questioned the locus to challenge the amendments. They said he was in no way affected by the amendments and a person affected ought to have petitioned.