Chennai
The Madras High Court has rejected a PIL plea challenging the amendments made in the Finance Act and LIC Act, which enabled the central government to disinvest its stakes in the Life Insurance Corporation of India.
The first bench of Chief Justice MN Bhandari and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy was dismissing the petition from L Ponnammal, a policy-holder with the insurance behemoth who contended that the subject matter would not fall within the definition of Money Bill.
The amendments were introduced by the Money Bill under Article 110 of the Constitution, though the same did not fall within the said category, she added. “There is no constitutional illegality in the Parliament having amended the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) Act by way of a Money Bill for floating an Initial Public Offering (IPO) and parting with its shareholding in the corporation to raise Rs 65,000 crore to Rs 70,000 crore initially to the Consolidated Fund of India,” the bench said.
Rejecting the petitioner’s contention, the bench said that a challenge to the Finance Act of 2021, through which the LIC Act was amended, could not be accepted in the absence of a challenge to a certificate issued by the Lok Sabha Speaker classifying the Finance Bill 2021 as a Money Bill.
The Speaker’s decision should be treated as final as per Article 110(3) of the Constitution, unless a judicial review of it had been prayed for.
The issues related to payment or withdrawal of money either from the Consolidated Fund or Contingency Fund of India would fall under the definition of Money Bill and if any question arises as to whether a Bill was a Money Bill or not, the decision of the Lok Sabha Speaker would be final as per Article 110(3) of the Constitution.
