SC notice to Centre on plea against PMLA amendments via Money Bill

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued a notice to the Centre in a plea by Congress leader Jairam Ramesh challenging the amendments to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) since 2015 by way of Money Bills. He moved the apex court after the high court refused to entertain the plea in February saying it doesn’t think that exclusive jurisdiction under Article 226 was required to be exercised.

The division bench, comprising Justices S.A. Bobde and BR Gavai, asked Ramesh regarding his locus standi in the case. His counsel, P. Chidambaram, explained that Ramesh was one of the petitioners in the Puttaswamy case wherein a similar issue was raised with regard to the Aadhaar Act as the same was passed as a Money Bill.

Ramesh was also a Member of Parliament when the amendments were made, Chidambaram said.

In his plea in the high court, Ramesh had alleged that the amendments made to PMLA were "unconstitutional" as they have no relation to the Money Bill provisions in Article 110.

A Money Bill 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 Delhi High Court had refused to entertain the petition filed by the Congress leader challenging the amendments to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) through the Finance Acts of 2015, 2016 and 2018.

The amendments were made through Sections 145 to 151 of the Finance Act 2015, Section 232 of the Finance Act 2016, and Section 208 of the Finance Act 2018.

“…from the year 2015 most amendments to the PML Act have been enacted via Finance Acts as ‘Money Bills’, defined under Article 110(1) of the Constitution. The plea of Mr. Chidambram that the petitioner was not aware that such amendments have been carried out as Money Bills, is no reason to challenge the amendments, at least of the years 2015 and 2016 in the year 2019. In any case, merely because the petitioner came to know recently that such amendments have been carried out as Money Bills, would not justify the delay,” the high court order had said.

The Centre had opposed the plea in the Delhi High Court saying Ramesh has no locus standi in the case and the Congress leader was not affected by the amendments.