Passing Aadhaar as money bill fraud on Constitution: Justice Chandrachud

Even as the five-judge Supreme Court (SC) Bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra declared Aadhaar constitutional by a majority verdict, Justice D Y Chandrachud wrote a strong dissenting note, saying the Aadhaar Act could not have been passed as a money Bill and that this amounted to a fraud on the Constitution. Chandrachud said the power of the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, to decide whether a Bill is a money Bill, “cannot be untrammelled”. He referred to the bypassing of Rajya Sabha in 2016 as “subterfuge”. “This debasement of a democratic institution cannot be allowed to pass. Institutions are crucial to democracy. Debasing them can only cause a peril to democratic structures. The Aadhaar Act is in violation of Article 110 and, therefore, is liable to be declared unconstitutional,” he said. Commenting on the nature of the UIDAI, he said the Aadhaar Act allowed discretionary powers. The UIDAI can, at any point, expand its powers and even start collecting blood samples of individuals, he added.