-The Economic Times Prominent activist and key Anna associate Arvind Kejriwal claimed the income-tax notice asking him to pay dues of 9 lakh to the government is prompted by "political bosses" and without merit. The notice was slapped on him in August, days before Anna started the second round of his indefinite anti-graft hunger strike. The I-T notice and related developments threatened to deteriorate into yet another nasty row between Team Anna and...
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Pvt hospitals can’t charge the poor: SC by Krishnadas Rajagopal
The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered private hospitals functioning on public land to make good their promise to treat the poor for free. This decision is intended to change the belief that “health care is given only to those who can afford it”. The bench of Justices R V Raveendran and A K Patnaik passed a short order after a detailed hearing in which lawyers representing several private hospitals tried to...
More »Chances of corrupt public servants being caught and punished very less by Bibek Debroy
The Lokpal legislation, in whatever form, will not be the only law we have on corruption. Apart from statutes on prohibition of benami transactions and prevention of money laundering, there is the IPC (Indian Penal Code). Under Sections 169 and 409 of IPC, depending on the offence, public servants can face imprisonment (from two years to life) and fines. This wasn't enough of a deterrent and after Bofors, we had...
More »It's a tightrope walk by Soli Sorabjee
Acute dissatisfaction verging on disgust with the behaviour and performance of some Members of Parliament and members of Legislative Assemblies has generated a debate about enacting a legislation for recall of elected members. Under the present law, an MP or an MLA has a fixed term of office for five years. Articles 102 and 191 of the Constitution specify the contingencies in which a person shall be disqualified for being...
More »Dalit leaders to meet Singhvi with their Lokpal draft
There is now a fourth Lokpal draft that the standing committee may need to consider. A delegation led by Udit Raj, chairman of theAll India Confederation of SC/ST Organisations, will meet Abhishek Singhvi, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on law and justice to hand over a copy of the Bahujan Lokpal Bill - their version of the legislation for an anti-corruption ombudsman. The bill, according to Raj, will address...
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