Rajya Sabha passes and returns Jammu and Kashmir Appropriation (No 2) Bill, Finance Bill

In the midst of the din, the Rajya Sabha passed and returned ‘The Jammu and Kashmir Appropriation (No 2) Bill, 2023’ and ‘The Appropriation Bill, 2023’ or Finance Bill 2023. These bills were passed amid a commotion caused by opposition parties seeking a Joint Parliamentary Committee investigation into the Adani-Hindenburg dispute. Both bills were passed by the Lok Sabha last week, amid similar uproar over the same issue from the opposition parties.

The ‘Jammu and Kashmir Appropriation (No 2) Bill, 2023’ and ‘The Appropriation Bill, 2023’ were considered and returned in the Rajya Sabha minutes after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman moved them.

The Jammu and Kashmir Appropriation (No. 2) Bill, 2023, seeks to authorise the payment and appropriation of certain sums from and out of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir’s Consolidated Fund for the fiscal year 2023-24.

The Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha last week without debate, amid much clamour in the Lower House. The Appropriation (No. 2) Bill, 2023, seeks to authorise the payment and appropriation of certain additional sums from and out of the Consolidated Fund of India for the fiscal year 2022-23. The Bill was also passed without debate by the Lok Sabha last week.

The Lok Sabha passed the Finance Bill 2023 with several official amendments on March 24 amid the din created by Opposition parliamentarians who continued to demand a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the Adani-Hindenburg issue. Nirmala Sitharaman, Finance Minister, had tabled 64 official amendments to the Finance Bill, which was introduced in Parliament on February 1 along with the Budget proposals.