GST Council not for inclusion of petroleum products: Finance Ministry

  • The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council has decided to keep petroleum products out of the GST regime, while consumers will have to keep paying the Compensation Cess levied on products like automobiles till March 2026 instead of July 2022 as originally envisaged at the time of rolling out the indirect tax regime. 

  • The Union government is not inclined to consider some States’ demand to extend the five year period for which they have been assured a 14% revenue growth for giving up several taxation powers to pave the way for implementing the GST regime. 

  • “Legally, compensation was to be paid for five years till July 2022 with an assured level of revenue for the States.


Court says no steps by top police officer for proper prosecution of riot cases

  • Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Arun Kumar Garg made the remarks after the prosecutor failed to appear before the court despite repeated calls and the investigating officer (IO) came to the court late without reading the police file and was unable to answer the court’s queries.

  • The CMM said that “This court is pained to note that the SHO Gokalpuri has not only failed to depute the substitute IO but also to ensure that the IO while appearing at 3.25 p.m., should at least have gone to the case file. He has also failed to ensure the presence of SPP.”

  • He also stated that “Such lackadaisical approach on the part of the prosecution as well as the investigating agency in riots cases has been repeatedly brought to the notice of not only the DCP North East and Joint CP Eastern Range but has also been brought to the notice of the Commissioner of Police, Delhi.”


Reconsider prohibition of hookah in public: HC

  • Justice Rekha Palli made the query on five separate pleas by restaurants and bars seeking direction to the State and police to not to interfere with the sale of herbal flavoured hookahs.

  • The petitions have challenged the order of Joint Commissioner of Police (Licensing Unit) prohibiting and excluding the sale or service of herbal flavoured hookahs in restaurant/ bar being run by them.


SC allows Kerala to hold physical exams

  • A Bench, led by Justice A.M. Khanwilkar, however, asked the authorities to take every necessary precaution while holding the examinations.

  • It had said physical examinations would spell an end to many problems, which haunt the online mode, including lack of Internet connectivity, etc, while examination process was on.


Bombay HC awards ₹10 lakh each to widows of three manual scavengers

  • A Division Bench of Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and Madhav Jamdar was hearing a petition filed by Vimla Govind Chorotiya, Neeta Santosh Kalshekar, and Bani Vishwajit Debnath. 

  • The Bench said the case was an “eyeopener” and directed the office of the District Collector to provide a compensation of ₹10 lakh each to the three women within four weeks.

  • The court also stated that it would monitor the case to ensure that all the provisions of the Prohibition of Employment of Manual Scavengers Act, 2013, were implemented.

  • It also directed the State government to submit a list of the manual scavengers identified by it and to report on the action taken on the FIR registered after the deaths of the manual scavengers in Govandi.

  • The court noted that it would examine whether the Government Resolution regarding the payment of compensation to the families of the deceased manual scavengers was complied with.


SC Collegium on Mission Mode to Fill Vacancies; Higher Judiciary Set for Biggest Reshuffle in Recent Times


  • Initiating probably one of the largest shuffles in the higher judiciary in recent times, the Supreme Court Collegium, headed by Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana, is learnt to have recommended the transfer of judges across 14 of a total 25 High Courts in the country.

  • The Collegium recommendations would cover the transfers of judges from the High Courts of Allahabad, Bombay, Calcutta, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, Madras, Orissa, Patna, Punjab and Haryana, Rajasthan and Telangana. 

  • The recommendations have been made to transfer judges to different High Courts, including Himachal Pradesh, Patna, Madhya Pradesh, Calcutta, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Punjab and Haryana, Rajasthan, Orissa, Telangana, Allahabad, Jharkhand, Madras, Uttarakhand and Tripura. As noticed, most of the transfers are to and from the same High Courts.


Major restructuring of Railways on anvil

  • The recommendations of the Principal Economic Adviser Sanjeev Sanyal for Rationalisation of Government Bodies and Proposal for the Ministry of Railways calls for winding up the Central Organisation for Railway Electrification (CORE), the Central Organisation for Modernisation Of Workshops (COFMOW), the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) and the Indian Railways Organisation for Alternative Fuel (already closed on September 7,2021).

  • Going by the plan, RailTel, one of the largest telecom infrastructure providers in the country that focuses on modernizing operations and safety systems through optic fibre networks that exists along railway tracks, would be merged with the IRCTC.

  • The Principal Economic Adviser recommended merger of railway schools with Kendriya Vidyalayas or handing them over to the respective State governments since “operating the railway schools takes up a large amount of time of the railway management, whose core competence is in running and maintaining the railway service”.

  • Another major reform recommended was to establish Central Public Sector Enterprises to bring eight production units under its fold. This would mean that the assets, infrastructure and employees of three coach factories — Integral Coach Factory, Chennai; Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala; Modern Coach Factory, RaeBareli; three locomotive manufacturing units – Chittaranjan Locomotive Works, Chittaranjan; Diesel Locomotive Works, Varanasi; Diesel Loco Modernisation Works, Patiala and two Rail Wheel Units at Yelahanka (Bengaluru) and Bela (Bihar), would be transferred to the proposed CPSE.


SC issues notice to Adani unit on Gujarat Urja’s curative plea

  • The Supreme Court, in a rare move, has issued notice in a curative petition filed by Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Ltd. (GUVNL) against a July 2019 judgment of the apex court upholding the termination of a power purchase agreement (PPA) by Adani Power (Mundra) Ltd.

  • The apex court exercises its curative jurisdiction only in extraordinary circumstances, primarily to prevent miscarriage of justice and abuse of process. 

  • The case relates to Adani Power’s termination of the PPA with GUVNL citing GMDC’s failure to supply it coal. The Gujarat State Electricity Regulatory Commission and later an appellate tribunal held the termination ‘illegal’.


Council raises GST on low-cost footwear, garments to 12%

  • In its first physical meeting in two years, the GST Council on Friday affected several long-pending tweaks in tax rates including an increase in the GST levied on footwear costing less than ₹1,000 as well as readymade garments and fabrics to 12% from 5%. 

  • The Council approved a special composition scheme for brick kilns with a turnover threshold of ₹20 lakhs, from April 1, 2022. Bricks would attract GST at the rate of 6% without input tax credits under the scheme, or 12% with input credits.

  • The new rates on these products, a decision on which had been deferred by the Council over the past year owing to the pandemic’s impact on households, will come into effect from January 1

  • The Council also decided to make food delivery apps like Swiggy and Zomato liable to collect and remit the taxes on food orders, as opposed to the current system where restaurants providing the food remit the tax.


Biden unveils plan to cut methane emissions

  • With about a month and a half to go before the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26), the UN climate conference in Glasgow, U.S. President Joe Biden announced the Global Methane Pledge, a U.S.–EU led effort to cut methane emissions by a third by the end of this decade. Mr. 

  • Biden made the announcement at the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate (MEF), hosted virtually by the White House on Friday, in which leaders from several countries and the EU, as well as UN Secretary General António Guterres and (India’s ) Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav, participated.


UN mission in Afghanistan gets extension

  • The UN Security Council voted on Friday to extend the UN mission in Afghanistan for six months, and called on the Taliban to create an inclusive government.

  • The 15 member Council acted in a resolution passed unanimously on the UNAMA political mission, which deals with development issues, among others, not peacekeeping.

  • The document stressed “the importance of the establishment of an inclusive and representative government,” although Afghanistan’s new Islamist rulers have formed a government made up only of Taliban members and no women.

Extracted & Compiled by- Mr. Rajat Gupta, Advocate- Delhi High Court

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