From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: Congress general secretary and chief spokesman Jairam Ramesh was happy that his petition in 2019 has not been thrown out by the Supreme Court in its judgment on the Enforcement Directorate’s powers on Wednesday.
Instead, the Bench headed by Justice A M Khanwilkar that had issued notice on the petition on July 2, 2019, in which he had challenged the Modi government getting amendments to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act passed as the Money Bill and the question he raised remains unresolved in the judgment, Jairam underlined.
He said the Bench had agreed that they are “conscious of the fact that if that ground of challenge is to be accepted, it may go to the root of the matter and amendments effected vide Finance Act would become unconstitutional or ineffective.”
The Bench has left this matter to be decided with or after by a larger Bench (of seven judges) in the case of Rojer Mathew vs South Indian Bank Limited (Civil appeal No 8588 of 2019).
The government had adopted the money bill route to escape voting in the Rajya Sabha where it did not have the majority to get the Bill on money laundering passed.
Jairam said the judgment on the ED powers “will have far reaching implications for our democracy, especially when Governments are anchored in political vendetta.”
