Finance Minister and leader of the House in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley on Thursday assured the Elders that Parliament alone has the right to approve how public money is spent as also exercise its power to decide on the pension of MPs.
He was responding to a reported observation by the Supreme Court that more than 80 per cent of former MPs were millionaires. The SC had sought responses from the Centre and the Election Commission on a plea seeking scrapping of MPs’ pension.
Drawing the line between the roles of the Executive and the Judiciary, Jaitley said, “It is an unquestionably clear constitutional position that public money can be spent only after authorisation of Parliament. Therefore, Parliament only can authorise how public money can be spent. No other institution can exercise that power.”
He also said, “It is the exclusive domain of Parliament to decide who is entitled to Government pension and how much. This is the constitutional position which all institutions will have to eventually accept.”
Earlier, Naresh Agrawal (Samajwadi Party) raised the issue saying the image of MPs was getting tarnished as if they are appropriating huge public monies as salaries and pension without working. He said some former MPs are living “a pauper’s life”, with the children of a former law maker in Uttar Pradesh working as labourers and artisan.
Jairam Ramesh (Congress) said he was astonished to read that a survey had found that 80 per cent of the ex-MPs were crorepatis. As Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien asked him to seek remedy in the courts and not criticise the judiciary, Ramesh said 80 per cent of the present MPs would not be millionaires when their term comes to an end.
The Supreme Court had on Tuesday reportedly said the pension and perks to MPs seemed ‘prima facie’ unreasonable and had sought responses from the Centre and the Election Commission of India on a plea seeking the scrapping of pension and other perks being given to Members of Parliament.
A Bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar also issued notices to the Secretary General of the lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha on the plea filed by NGO lok Prahari on the issue.