The Central Government has opposed the Supreme Court's demand to give priority to matters related to the Finance Bill among the cases pending for hearing before a seven-judge bench. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing on behalf of the Central Government, has made the request before the court.

SG Tushar Mehta requested that the court should proceed in the order of seniority in hearing the cases. However, he said it is the discretion of the court as to how it hears the cases. Mehta further said that the priority of hearing the case should not be decided on the basis of political exigencies.

Tushar Mehta said this when the date and schedule of hearing on the petitions related to the Finance Bill came up. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for one of the petitioners in the case, requested the court to give priority in hearing to the matter related to the Finance Bill. Sibal said that this is a live issue.

On Sibal's request, Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, who was leading the bench, said that he would give some priority to the matter, when the Solicitor General, appearing for the Centre, opposed it. On the argument of the Solicitor General, the Chief Justice said, 'leave it to us.'

Constitution bench of seven judges of the Supreme Court was sitting in the seven and nine judge benches to decide the dates and schedule of the long pending cases. To decide the hearing schedule, six cases were before the bench of seven judges and four cases were before the bench of nine judges. Apart from Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, the bench included Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai, Surya Kant, JB Pardiwala and Manoj Mishra.

The fifth position in the list of cases pending in seven-judge benches included Roger Mathew vs. South Indian Bank case in which the issue of Finance Bill has been raised. Along with this, many other petitions are also attached for hearing.

Earlier on October 6, the Supreme Court had said that it would constitute a bench of seven judges to consider the issue of legality of passing acts like Aadhaar law as finance bills. The issue of Finance Bill was also raised regarding the Bill to amend the Aadhaar Act and the PMLA Act, which was introduced as a Finance Bill.

According to the Constitution, a Finance Bill is one which the Speaker of the Lok Sabha certifies as a Finance Bill. The Finance Bill is always introduced in the Lok Sabha. Rajya Sabha cannot modify or reject it, it can only make recommendations, which is up to the Lok Sabha to accept or not.