Rojer Mathew case
Also called: Rojer Mathew v. South Indian Bank (2019) · Topic: Parliamentary Procedure, Committees and Privileges · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
The Rojer Mathew case (Rojer Mathew v. South Indian Bank, 2019) was decided by a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court. The Court struck down rules for tribunals that had been made under the Finance Act 2017. The Finance Act 2017 had been passed as a money bill, a bill that only the Lok Sabha fully controls; the Rajya Sabha can only suggest changes to it. The Court sent a bigger question to a larger bench: was it valid to pass such laws as money bills? The case matters because the money-bill route lets a government get around the Rajya Sabha, the House that speaks for the states.
Example
The Finance Act 2017 changed how members of many tribunals were appointed and how they served. In 2019, the five-judge bench cancelled the rules made under it. It left the money-bill question for a larger bench to decide (current status: verify).
Don't confuse with
- K.S. Puttaswamy (Aadhaar, 2018): here the majority upheld the Aadhaar Act 2016 as a money bill. Rojer Mathew doubted that approach and referred the question to a larger bench.