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Synopsis

Supreme Court on Friday, October 6, said that it will soon be constituting a 7-judge bench to hear the Money Bill issue.

A CJI Chandrachud led bench made this observation after Senior Advocate Maneka Guruswamy mentioned the issue before it.

"This is a specific challenge in regard to PMLA..", submitted Guruswamy.

"We will soon be setting up a 7-judge bench..next week we are listing all pending 7-judge and 9-judge matters for directions..", replied the bench also comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.

Article 110 of the Indian constitution defines a money bill as a bill that has provisions regarding imposition, abolition, remission, alteration or regulation of any tax; regulating government borrowings and financial obligations, custody, and flow of funds from the Consolidated Fund of India.

This issue came into light after the Aadhaar Act was passed in 2016 which was introduced by the Centre in Parliament as a money bill. Notably, the Rajya Sabha cannot amend or reject a money bill. 

Amendments were made to Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) by introducing money bills. A Justice AM Khanwilkar led bench of the top court on July 27, 2022 had upheld the constitutional validity of various provisions of the PMLA. The bench, also consisting of Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and CT Ravikumar however held that the challenge to the passage of amendments to the Act in 2019 as a money bill will be considered by a larger bench. 

On August 22, 2022 the Court had agreed to hear a review petition challenging its judgment upholding the constitutional validity of PMLA.

Last month, Supreme Court constituted a three-judge special bench to hear the review petition challenging the court's judgment defining contours of PMLA and also upholding the Act.

Justice SK Kaul, who is part of the bench had revealed in court that the bench also consisting of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Bela M Trivedi shall commence hearing the matter from on October 18, 2023.