PRESIDENT’S ASSENT TO TWO MORE BILLS

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The President has given his assent to the Appropriation (Railways) No. 3 Bill, 2002 and the Appropriation (Railways) No. 4 Bill, 2002. With this, these two Bills have been notified in the Gazette of India as Act Nos. 48 and 49 respectively of the year 2002. Since these two Bills were money bills, these could not be taken up for consideration and return by the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) following disruption of the proceedings of the House and the Parliament having been adjourned sine die pre-maturely. In the scheme of Constitution and the rule of law, passage of money bill by the House of the People (Lok Sabha) is final.

The Appropriation (Railways) No. 3 Act, 2002, seeks to authorize payment and appropriation of a sum of Rs. 400,00,60,000 from and out of the Consolidated Fund of India for the Railways for current financial year 2002-2003.

The Appropriation (Railways) No. 4 Act, 2002, seeks to authorize payment and appropriation of a sum of Rs. 56,78,56,829 from and out of the Consolidated Fund of India to meet the additional expenditure already incurred for the Railways during the financial year ended on March 31, 2000 in access of the amounts already granted for the Railways for that year.