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National News

High Court Appointments

Karnataka High Court gets new Additional Judges

For the period of two years Shri Boregowda Sreenivase Gowda and Shri Keralapura Nanjundaiah Keshavanarayana have been appointed as the Additional judges of the Karnataka High Court, in that order of seniority. Shri Sunkenahalli Narasimhaiah Satyanarayana ahs also been appointed as the Additional judges of the Karnataka High Court for a period of two years.

DTAA signed with Luxembourg

A Double Taxation avoidance Agreement (DTAA) has been signed between the Government of Indian and the government of Grand Duchy of Luxembourg for the avoidance of double taxation and for the prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on Income and on capital, on 2nd June. The agreement would come enforce from a date to be notified. The agreement aims at promoting economic cooperation and cover Income tax and Wealth tax, in case of India and in the case of Luxembourg it would cover the income tax on individuals, the corporation tax, capital tax and the communal trade tax.

ECB policy reviewed

Borrowers in the services sector at present are not eligible to avail ECB under the automatic route. With the review to modify some aspect of ECB policy, it has been decided that henceforth borrowers in the services sector viz hotels, hospitals and software companies may avail ECB upto US$ 100 million for import of capital goods under the approval route. The amendments in the ECB Policy will come into force on the date of Notification of Regulations/directions issued by the Reserve Bank in this regard under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999.

Central Sales Tax (CST) reduced to 2%

The Government of India has reduced the rate of Central Sales Tax (CST) to 2%, which was earlier 3% on Inter-State sales of goods. The rate of CST on inter-State sale of goods to registered dealers (against Form-C) shall now be the lower of 2 per cent from 1st June and the rate of VAT or State Sales Tax applicable. This reduction forms a part of the roadmap for phasing out CST completely by 31st March 2010, which is being worked out by the Empowered Committee (EC) of State Finance Ministers with the Union Finance minister.

Maharastra HC orders quota benefits to migrants

The Nagpur High Court bench ordered to give quota benefits to the migrants from other states if they belong to the community that enjoys reservations in their home state as well as in Maharastra also. As per rules, a person whose parents were domiciled in Maharashtra when the state came into being in 1960 and belong to a specified caste or tribe can claim the benefits of quotas.

SC: No extra pay for additional responsibilities for Babu's

A bench of Supreme Court gave relief to the centre by setting aside the order of Central Administrative Tribunal and Gujarat High Court that no additional allowance were due to the officers if the additional responsibilities assigned to them needed no extra working hours and which could be performed during scheduled office hours. Centre pointed out that the additional responsibilities did not involve any out-of-ordinary effort and no extra allowances could be paid for the additional duties, as they are the part of normal duty and which could be performed by during the normal working hours of the day.

SC: Indian whisky can have Scotch name

The Supreme Court judges set aside a judgment of Madras High Court and said that a made in India tag cannot fool Scotch whisky drinkers. Just by naming a Indian whisky brand 'Peter Scot' cannot confuse Scotch drinkers. Supreme Court relied greatly on the Scotch connoisseur's ability to differentiate between an original and fake. Also the price difference between Indian whisky and the Scotch whisky makes it easier to differentiate from the original scotch.

Amendment bill introduced

The Union Cabinet has given its approval for introduction of a Bill, namely the Prevention of Money-laundering (Amendment) Bill, 2008 in the Parliament. The bill would make amendments to Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 and will enable the Government of India to meet certain domestic needs and international obligations.

I-T defaulters can loose their property

People who ignore and default in paying Income Tax, now their properties can be attached by I-T department for auction. Supreme Court in a judgment recently said that Income Tax department is well within its right to attach the defaulter's property and put it up for auction sale to recover the dues.

Trial Court verdict of Nitish Katara case

Accused namely Vikas Yadav and Vishal Yadav were tried for committing offence under sections 364/302/201/34 of the Indian Penal Code. The FIR was registered on the basis of complaint made by the mother of the deceased (Nitish Katara) alleging accused of being responsible of causing untoward incident as his son was in an unapproved friendly terms with their sister (Bharati). Prosecution alleged accused of murdering deceased on finding appropriate opportunity in furtherance of their common intention to kill him on their being sufficient circumstantial evidence.

The prosecution proved on record that Nitish and Bharti had love affair and wanted to marry but accused persons, her brothers did not approve her such relationship and on finding an appropriate opportunity in furtherance of their common intention alongwith their co-accused Sukhdev Yadav abducted the deceased from the place where he was attending a marriage. From there, accused Vishal Yadav on the pretext of talking to him took him out of the said place. It is also proved vide positive evidence that the deceased and accused were seen together by one of the witness at midnight of occurrence and thereafter the dead body of the deceased in burnt condition was spotted on the following morning. In view of the circumstances of the case, particularly when accused persons failed to explain as to how and where the deceased parted their company and in view of the false plea of alibi taken by the accused persons, the possibility of any other person being the author of the crime is impossible. Thus, the prosecution held to have proved beyond reasonable doubt from circumstantial evidence that the accused had abducted the deceased and thereafter committed his murder.

Both the convicts were awarded life imprisonment and sentenced to pay a fine of Rs. 1 lakh each U/s 302/34 IPC in default each to undergo 1 year SI. Both the convicts were further sentenced to RI for 10 years and fine of Rs. 50,000/each U/s 364/34 IPC in default each to under SI for 6 months. Both the convicts are further sentenced to RI for 5 years and to pay a fine of Rs. 10,000/each U/s 201 /34 IPC in default each to undergo SI for 3 months and all the sentences to run concurrently.

 

International News

Chinese scholar gets a Padma Bhushan

The External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee handed over the Padma Bhushan certificate and medallion to eminent Sanskrit scholar and Indologist, Ji Xianlin, who translated Valmiki's Ramayana in the sixties. The award for the 97-year old Ji was announced on the Republic Day. Ji majored in the Sanskrit and he also pioneered the teaching of Sanskrit at the Peking University, which now has scholars who have translated many Indian ancient texts including Kalidasa's works and the Mahabharata.

A Q Khan accuses all Nuclear powers to be stolen

The Pakistan's disgraced scientist has accused all the nuclear powers to be have developed their atomic programme secretly with borrowed or smuggled technology, designs and human skills, including countries like India and US. Khan, under house arrest for the last four years after admitting to selling atomic secrets to North Korea, Libya and Iran, said the nuclear capability of the US, the UK, France, India, Russia and China were developed secretly with borrowed and smuggled technology.

Royalties on Patents limited by Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on 10th June breathed new life into the 150-year-old doctrine of patent exhaustion, under which a patent holder has little or no power to restrict what a purchaser does with the patented items after the first sale.

United states withdraws completely from its commitments on gambling services, GATS

Multidollar trade dispute with the United Nations over Internet gambling, the twin island nation of Antigua and Barbuda initiated a WTO complaint for violating commitments contained in GATS on the grounds to protect public morals or maintain public order.

US Supreme Court rules in money laundering cases

The term 'proceeds' in federal money laundering statute means 'profits' and not 'receipts'. It was further explained that the rule of lenity requires ambiguous criminal laws to be interpreted in favor of defendants subjected to them.

Polygamist sect get their children back

The Texas Supreme Court ordered the state to return the 468 children taken from a polygamist sect's ranch in Eldorado, ruling that their removal "was not warranted." The decision backs a state appellate court's finding that the state overstepped its authority in removing children from the Yearning for Zion ranch, run by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints without any considerable evidence of abuse against children.

 
     
 
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