KOLKATA: The Supreme Court on Friday refused an urgent hearing on a plea seeking postponement of presentation of Union Budget due to assembly elections in five states.
“There is no urgency in it. We will lay down the law when this petition comes up,” a bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar said.
Advocate M L Sharma, who filed the PIL on the issue, mentioned it and sought an urgent hearing. The PIL said the Centre be directed to present the Union Budget in the financial year 2017-18 which would commence from April 1, instead of the proposed February 1 date. It also said that the central government be restrained from declaring “any relief, programme, financial budget until the states’ elections are over” as they would violate the Model Code of Conduct (MCC).
The Election Commission had on January 4 come out with the schedule of Assembly elections to be held in five states, including Uttar Pradesh. The Centre has already decided to convene the Budget Session of Parliament from January 31 and present the Budget for 2017-18 fiscal the very next day.
Amid the protest by the Opposition parties on the date of budget, union minister M Venkaiah Naidu termed the demand to defer the Budget Session as anti-people. He said the Union Budget is for the country and would not be state-specific.
“No budget means no development, no welfare. Is this what you want? And no support to poor people, no support to farmers, is that what your wish is? Why are you opposing? Budget is budget,” the union minister said.
Naidu said the budget would not be state specific. “The budget will be about the people, their future, what are the taxation proposals, what is the revenue model...It will be presented before the Parliament, that is for the country, it will not be state specific,” the Information and Broadcasting Minister said.