Union Government headed by PM Modi heaved sigh of relief when Supreme Court of India cleared all hurdles for presentation of budget on Feb 1st. Supreme Court dismissed a PIL earlier which demanded it to restrain Centre from making budget declarations before the assembly elections in the five states.
Chief Justice of India passing the order said “Central budget is Central budget… it has nothing to do with states. Not just legislative powers but the executive powers are also different as far as the Centre and states are concerned. This has been well-defined in the Constitution,”
However Election Commission gave shock to Union Government after permitting the presentation of Budget by the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. It said the Finance Minister cannot announce new schemes specific to Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand and Manipur.
It also barred the Union Government to highlight its achievement in the five poll bound states. The poll panel also advised the state governments in the five states to follow norms and not present a full-fledged state Budget but take a vote-on-account instead.
