The Supreme Court on Friday said there was nothing in the law that could bar the government from advancing the date for the presentation of the annual budget for the year 2017-18.
"You (lawyer) tell us what provisions have been violated. Tentatively speaking, we don't find any material in support of the petition," a bench comprising Chief Justice JS Khehar and Justice DY Chandrachud said.
The bench asked lawyer ML Sharma to take time and prepare ‘hard’ and come out with material in support of the petition. The court then fixed the PIL for further hearing on January 20.
The PIL had said that the Centre be directed to present the Union Budget in the financial year 2017-18 which would commence from April 1, instead of the proposed February 1 date due to Mode Code of Conduct in five poll-bound states. The five states that will go to polls between February 4 and March 8 are Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur.
The petitioner had also demanded that the central government be restrained from declaring "any relief, programme, financial budget until the states' elections are over" as they would violate the Model Code of Conduct (MCC).
The government has advanced the presentation of the annual budget to February 1, instead of the usual practice of presenting it on the last day of February. This has been done in order to ensure that all budgetary provisions are allocated to different sectors from April 1, the beginning of the new fiscal.
