Nothing in law to bar Centre from advancing presentation of budget, says Supreme Court

New Delhi: 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. The court also asked the petitioner to show if there was any such provision in the law that could back his plea against the government decision. A bench of Chief Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud asked the PIL petitioner, advocate M.L. Sharma, to show them the provision that could bar the Centre from presenting the budget on February 1. "We tried to find the provision but we did not get," the bench told Sharma. It also asked him to show "which provision of the law is violated, which provision of constitution is violated" by advancing the budget date. Having said this, the court gave Sharma time till January 20, to look for the provision to back his plea for deferring the budget till the last phase of polling to five state assemblies was over. 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.