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8/2/2019 Abhyaas Law Bulletin - April 2012
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/abhyaas-law-bulletin-april-2012 1/4The Law Bulletin… Page 1 www.abhyaas.in
bhyaas Law Bulletin …For the quintessential CLAT aspirant
pril 10th 2012 ALB20120404
The Editor’s Column
Dear Student,
Welcome to the April edition of the Abhyaas Law
Bulletin. Army Chief Gen V.K. Singh’s claim that he
was offered a 14 crore bribe created quite a storm.
While the opposition demanded a CBI probe, the
ruling party was unhappy with the General’s publicspeak. The letter written by the general to PM
Manmohan Singh also got leaked to the media. Many
parties demanded the sacking of the Army chief while
the Government was looking to end this stand off.
Both the General and Defense minister clarified that
there is no bad blood between the Army and the
Government.
Both the Railway Budget and Union Budget were
presented in the Parliament. The hike of railway
fares irked Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee who
immediately asked the PM to remove Dinesh Trivedi
as the Railway Minister. The Union budget was aimed
at increasing the revenue through service tax hike.
Sachin Tendulkar achieved the much awaited
milestone of 100 international centuries after he
scores a century against Bangladesh in the Asia Cup.
Happy Reading !
(Rakesh Dubudu)
Index:
Page 2: National
Page 3: International
Page 4: Spotlight
The Scoop Of The Month
I was offered a bribe of Rs. 14 crore, says
Army Chief
The Army Chief, General V.K. Singh, has alleged
hat an equipment lobbyist offered him a bribe of
Rs. 14 crore, which he reported to Union Defence
Minister A.K. Antony.
n a recent interview , General Singh spoke on a
variety of issues, including the controversy on his
Date of Birth and the shocking state of affairs in
he Army which had allowed the Chief to be
offered a bribe.
The General said the lobbyist offered him the
bribe in order to have a tranche of 600 sub-
tandard vehicles of a particular make cleared for
purchase. He said the vehicles, 7000 of which
were already in use in the Army, had been soldover the years at exorbitant prices with no
questions asked. He said there was no proper
acility where they could be serviced and
maintained and yet they continued to be sold to
he Army: “Just imagine, one of these men had the
gumption to walk up to me and tell me that if I
cleared the tranche, he would give me Rs. 14
crore. He was offering a bribe to me, to the Army
Chief. He told me that people had taken money
before me and they will take money after me.”(contd ….)
8/2/2019 Abhyaas Law Bulletin - April 2012
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pril 10th 2012
National:
The Army chief said the brazenness of the act shocked
him out of his wits. “ I was shocked. If somebody
comes and tells you, you will get so much, what can
you do?” He said the man had recently retired from
he Army, indicating how deeply entrenched the
problem was.The General said he went straight to Mr. Antony and
eported the matter. “I told him, if you think I'm a
misfit, I will walk out.”
Asked what had brought the Army to the state where
he Chief could be offered a bribe, he said: “Obviously
omewhere our standards of probity and integrity
have fallen.” According to General Singh, it was
because he had cracked down on corruption that he
was targeted on his date of birth: “But things are fast
unraveling and you will soon see the hand behind the
drama. You will soon see who the sutradhar of the
play is.”
Pratibha's foreign trips cost nation a record Rs. 205
crore
President Pratibha Patil's foreign visits have cost the
public exchequer Rs. 205 crore, surpassing the record
of all her predecessors. Since assuming office as the
country's first woman President in July 2007, Ms. Patil
has undertaken 12 trips covering 22 countries across
our continents. She has four more months to go in her
ive-year tenure and a trip to South Africa is said to be
on the anvil.
A series of RTI applications has revealed that Air India
ncurred over Rs. 169 crore on use of chartered
aircraft, always a Boeing 747-400, on the foreign visits
by Ms. Patil, mostly accompanied by family members.
A visit to Bhutan was covered by a smaller jet.
A further sum of nearly Rs. 36 crore has been incurred
by the External Affairs Ministry on accommodation,ocal travel, daily allowance and “miscellaneous”
expenses, according to its information.
The RTI applications were filed over three years during
which the authorities concerned showed great
eluctance to reveal information.
The Defence Ministry, which pays Air India for use of
chartered aircraft by the President, fended off RTI
queries and provided little information. The airline has
billed the Defence Ministry for over Rs. 169 crore for
aircraft used by Ms. Patil. Of this, it has paid nearly Rs.
153 crore.
UGC sets target for higher education enrolment
The University Grants Commission (UGC) has
chalked out several plans to increase gross
enrolment ratio (GER) of students in higher
education from the present 20 per cent to 30 per
cent during the 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-17).
The Commission has prepared a document on
inclusive and quality expansion of highereducation. The country's GER, indicator of access
to higher education is about 20 per cent of the
relevant age (17-23 years) group — low compared
to that in advanced countries, UGC Chairman
(Acting) Ved Prakash told on the sidelines of a
programme at the National Assessment and
Accreditation Council (NAAC).“The GER in India
will be increased to 30 per cent. I am very
optimistic,” he said. It would require an increase
in the student enrolment from the present level of14 million to 22 million in colleges and the
universities. More colleges would be opened in
low 374 GER districts, he said.
Mamata derails Trivedi as budget hikes fares
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and senior
Congress leaders, including Finance Minister
Pranab Mukherjee, Congress president Sonia
Gandhi, and her political secretary Ahmed Patel,
went into a huddle at 7 Race Course Road, afterWest Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee
precipitated a potential political train-wreck:
sources said she had faxed a letter to the Prime
Minister, asking him to sack Railway Minister and
fellow Trinamool party leader Dinesh Trivedi and
withdraw the hike in passenger fares announced
in his first budget earlier.
Railway Budget 2012 - at a glance
The five-day-long Trinamool Congress drama overthe passenger fare hike announced in the railway
budget finally ended with Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh forwarding Dinesh Trivedi's
resignation as Railway Minister to President
Pratibha Patil, and then met West Bengal Chief
Minister Mamata Banerjee, agreeing to her
demand that MoS Shipping Mukul Roy replace Mr.
Trivedi.
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pril 10th 2012
Setback to Centre as court rejects review plea in
Vodafone case
n a setback to the Union government, the Supreme
Court rejected its plea for a review of the court's
anuary 20 ruling that the Income Tax Department did
not have the jurisdiction to impose Rs.11,000 crore in
ax on the overseas deal between Vodafone
nternational Holdings and Hutchison Group.
A brief order, passed in the chambers of Chief Justice
S.H. Kapadia, said: “We have carefully gone through
he review petition filed by the Union of India on
February 17. We find no merit … [in it]. The review
petition is, accordingly, dismissed.” Justices K.S.
Radhakrishnan and Swatanter Kumar were the other
udges on the Bench. Under the Supreme Court rules,
eview petitions are normally decided in chambers. In
certain cases, the court may issue notice and hear
hem in open court. The outcome is likely to have abearing on the retrospective amendment to the
ncome Tax Act proposed in the Union budget, as any
uch change is likely to have an impact on Vodafone.
n its petition, the Ministry of Finance, through its
Secretary and the Assistant Director of Income Tax,
argued that the judgment suffered from an error
apparent on the face of the record and failed to
consider its case.
The petition said it was a patent error in the finding
hat the offshore transaction, which gave the
Vodafone holding company a 67 per cent stake in
Hutch-Essar, was “bonafide” and “structured FDI
oreign direct investment)” into India. The case did not
nvolve any money flow into India as evident from the
characterisation of the transaction as an offshore deal
and the incontrovertible fact that no investment or
money came to India.
The government said the FDI policy was in no way
under challenge or scrutiny in the case and could not
have been, given that the FDI and interpretation of
axing statutes operated in different realms. The
capital gains tax was imposed on account of
elinquishment of an asset, and this was done through
a specific amendment to the law traceable to the
Bombay High Court's decision.
The government pointed out that the court relied on
he Direct Tax Code Bills of 2009 and 2010 while
allowing the appeals in favour of Vodafone, and
asserted that there was no judicial precedent for
elying on pending legislation while interpreting theexisting legislation.
Reserve Bank warns Muthoot Fincorp
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), directed Muthoot
Fincorp to stop allowing the use of its
premises/branches or officials, in any manner by
its partnership firm Muthoot Estate Investments
for accepting deposits from public. Muthoot
Fincorp, Kerala, is a registered non-deposit taking
non-banking finance company. “It has come to the
notice of the RBI that a partnership firm with the
name of Muthoot Estate Investments in which the
promoters of Muthoot Fincorp are partners has
collected and has been collecting deposits in the
form of fixed deposits, cumulative deposits and
special public deposits from the public,” RBI said in
a release. These deposits are collected through the
branches of Muthoot Fincorp located at differentplaces in Kerala. “In terms of Section 45-S of the
RBI Act, acceptance of deposits from the public by
Muthoot Estate Investments, which is a
partnership firm, is prohibited,” the RBI added.
EPF interest rate down to 8.25%
The Finance Ministry has given its go-ahead to the
Labour Ministry to fix the rate of interest to be
paid to the EPF subscribers at 8.25 per cent for2011-12 instead of 9.5 per cent paid in 2010-11.
Taxi, second-class rail travel out of service tax net
Metered taxis, entry to amusement facilities,
second-class rail travel, and betting, gambling and
lottery will not attract the 12 per cent service tax,
as per the budget proposal. The negative list of
services, on which the increased service tax of 12
per cent will not be levied, includes admission to
entertainment events, access to amusementfacilities and travel by radio taxis and auto
rickshaws. Other important services, which will not
attract the tax, include funeral, burial, mutate
services and transport of deceased. The service
tax, according to the budget proposals of Finance
Minister Pranab Mukherjee, will be levied on all
services which are not mentioned in the negative
list. In order to net about Rs.1.24 lakh crore from
the service tax during 2012-13, the Minister has
proposed to increase the rate of levy from 10 per
cent to 12 per cent.
Business
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pril 10th 2012
Spotlight: Jindal Global Law School, Haryana
Jindal Global Law School (JGLS), India’s first global law school is situated on a
60-acre state of the art residential JGU campus. The vision of JGU is to
promote global courses, global programmes, global curriculum, global
research, global collaborations, and global interaction through a global faculty.
In the academic year 2012-13, JGLS offers a five year B.A. LL.B. (Hons.)
programme; a three year LL.B. programme and an LL.M. programme. The
LL.M. programme of JGLS is offered for law graduates, corporate lawyers, legal
practitioners, civil servants, diplomats and judges with three options
for specialisation.
el free to write to: [email protected] We don’t wish to print this journal, save paper, avoid printing
This month in pictures:
achin Tendulkar scored his
00th century in International
ricket against Bangladesh
Soumitra Chatterjee is selected for
the Dada Saheb Phalke Award
A.S. Kiran Kumar is the new
Director of Space Applications
Centre (SAC), Ahmedabad
Boxer Vijender Singh qualified
for the London Olympics
ijay Bahuguna is the new CM of
ttarakhand
Mukul Roy is the new Railway
minister
Students for admission to the five year B.A. LL.B. (Hons.), three year LL.B. and two year LL.M. programmes at
JGLS will be selected on on the basis of their performance in the Law School Admission Test —India (LSAT—
India). LSAT—India is an entrance test designed by the Law School Admission Council (LSAC), USA and is
conducted by Pearson VUE, LSAC’s affiliate in India. The test will be in a multiple choice format and covers
logical reasoning, analytical reasoning and reading comprehension. A sample test is available on the LSAT—
India website - www.pearsonvueindia.com/lsatindia.
Various scholarships such as O.P. Jindal Outstanding Merit ,Naveen Jindal Young Global Scholarships, Shallu
Jindal Outstanding Women Scholarships are available for prospective students.