Plea on LokPal bill dismissed

Plea on LokPal bill dismissed
New Delhi, Sep 1 (PTI) The Delhi High Court on Thursday
dismissed a plea seeking a direction to declare as
unconstitutional government's move to refer four versions of
Lokpal Bills to Parliament's Standing Committee for
consideration, saying the stage has not yet come where it
"will invoke judicial review".
A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Sanjiv
Khanna dismissed the plea saying that introduction of bills
and having debate on them are basically parliamentary
procedure.
"When the fundamental rights of the petitioner has not
been affected, Article 226 of the Constitution cannot be
invoked. We do not see any merit in the plea," the bench said.
The court said, "The writ petition is without any legal
foundation. We decline to entertain it and the same is
dismissed."
Appearing before the bench, advocate Manohar Lal Sharma
contended that the four bills, introduced by the government on
Lokpal issue, are "all money bills" as the expenses for the
office of the Lokpal will be drawn from the Consolidated Fund
of India and President's permission was required for
introducing such bills.
He claimed that he had sought to know from the Ministry
of Parliamentary Affairs if the President's permission was
taken to introduce the Bill, but he was denied the
information.
Countering the petitioner's argument, Additional
Solicitor General A S Chandihoke told the court that the bills
are not money bills and it was the discretion of the Speaker
to decide as to whether a bill is a money bill or not.
The bench was hearing a PIL (Public Interest Litigation)
which alleged that the government had followed an
"unprecedented" unconstitutional procedure by having civil
society members in the drafting panel. It said the Bill was
introduced under pressure from civil society members and
political parties.