The Supreme Court on Wednesday decided to constitute an expert group with representatives from the Niti Aayog, Finance Commission, the Reserve Bank, political parties and other stakeholders to examine the viability of freebies offered to voters.

The Centre told the court that “mindless freebies” were causing the country to “head towards an economic disaster”.

The apex court turned down the suggestion of senior lawyer Kapil Sibal that the issue of freebies was best left to the wisdom of Parliament, whose members can debate and discuss the matter, and that even the Election Commission should be left out of it.

“Do you think Parliament will debate the issue of freebies? Which political party will debate? No political party would oppose freebies. Each party wants it. We must think about tax payers and the country’s economy,” Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana told Sibal, appearing in his individual capacity after the court requested him to assist it.

“These are all policy matters. Let everyone participate in the debate. We’ll say the Finance Commission, political parties, Opposition parties, all of them can be members of this group. Let them have a debate and let them interact. Let them give their suggestions and submit their report,” the court added.

The bench, which also had Justices Krishna Murari and Hima Kohli, adjourned the matter till next Thursday to enable the Centre, the Election Commission, Sibal, the PIL petitioner and others to come up with suggestions on the composition of the proposed panel.

The court was dealing with a PIL filed by advocate Ashwini Upadhyay seeking a ban on “irrational freebies” offered by political parties that he complained spelled economic disaster for the country and feared could perpetrate a crisis like the one Sri Lanka was facing.

The petitioner’s contention was supported by solicitor-general Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Union government, who said “it (freebies) distorts the informed decision-making choice of the voter”.

“He doesn’t know what’s going to fall on him. This is the way we are heading towards economic disaster,” Mehta told the court while pleading that the EC be asked to apply its mind and come up with its views.

“I can’t force them (EC),” Justice Ramana said.

The bench said it was compelled to propose an expert group due to the inaction of the EC, which was relying on a 2013 judgment in the Subramaniam Balaji Vs State of Tamil Nadu case to hold that the commission can only formulate a model code of conduct at the time of elections and cannot ban or rein in freebies.