Fera Violators Can Be Imprisoned

IN THE SUPREME COURT

The Supreme Court has overruled the judgments of the Delhi and Kerala High Courts and held that an accused under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (Fera) who refuses to comply with the summons of the Enforcement Directorate can be punished with imprisonment.

The high courts had held that such persons could not be punished under Section 56 of Fera but they should be dealt with under other laws like the Indian Penal Code. Holding this view as incorrect, the three-judge bench headed by Justice G B Pattanaik stated such interpretation would make it easy for the Fera violators to ignore summons. The Supreme Court accepted the argument of the government that the refusal of the person summoned to carry out his obligation should be seriously dealt with.

 

Appeal for tax on idle buses dismissed

The Supreme Court has dismissed the appeal of the Gujarat government and struck down a provision in the Bombay Motor Vehicles Tax (Gujarat Amendment) Act which had imposed a tax on keeping buses idle. The objective of the law was to check clandestine use of the vehicles after declaring that they are not using them. This caused loss of tax revenue to the state.

However, the law stated that if any owner had to keep the vehicle idle and save on tax, he had to convince the concerned government officer that it was done for "reasons beyond the control of the owner." This part was struck down as unconstitutional. The judgment delivered by Justice S P Bharucha and Justice Shivaraj Patil observed: "Mere apprehension of clandestine use of a vehicle cannot be a ground for imposing tax on buses which are not put on road or kept away from use." They further said singling out buses, while leaving out trucks and other vehicles also was discriminatory and illegal.

Notice on pension to soldiers

The Supreme Court has issued notice to the defence ministry on a public interest litigation (PIL) pointing out several anomalies in the pension given to defence personnel which rendered their retirement emoluments much less than that given to civilians. A division bench comprising Justice B N Kirpal and Justice Ruma Pal issued the notice to the ministry on Wednesday on the PIL filed by the All India Defence Service Advocates Association (AIDSAA) through its president J S Manhas

The petitioner said the government while implementing the fifth pay commission recommendations has brought in an absurdity by directing that full pension, at the rate of 50 per cent of the average of last ten months emoluments, would be paid only if a person had served for 33 years. AIDSAA said: "This may be justified in case of civil employees but in defence forces there is no common fixed age of superannuation.

"It varies from rank to rank. About 94 per cent of persons in defence forces, about 13 lakh soldiers, retire with 17 to 24 years of service. About eight lakh get 33 per cent of emoluments as pension instead of 50 per cent fixed by the Pay Commission," the petitioner said.