-The Hindu Access to justice’ is a basic tenet; if it is denied, consumers could haul up courts, says T.S. Thakur Assailing the government for ignoring the demands of consumer courts for better infrastructure and staff, a Supreme Court judge on Thursday said if the consumers were to claim a “deficiency in service” on the part of the courts, then the government will be in trouble. To redress complaints of “deficiency in...

-The Hindu By hanging Afzal Guru secretly so that he could not approach the courts, and ignoring the pending case that could have affected his sentence, the Home Minister acted illegally On March 6, 2013, in response to an RTI request, the President’s Secretariat made available documents pertaining to Ajmal Kasab’s mercy petition. People from across the country and the globe had written to the President asking that he use his clemency...

-The Hindustan Times Enacted in 1958 to deal with the Naga uprising in the then composite state of Assam, the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) was reviewed by the Justice BP Jeevan Reddy Committee in 2005, which recommended that it be scrapped.   The Reddy report remains untabled in Parliament, despite the recent outcry, triggered by the Justice Verma Committee’s view that the Act needs to be reviewed (in the light...

-PTI The Income Tax department has decided to crack the whip on big companies and organisations that do not remit TDS money even after deducting it from their workers' salaries. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the controlling and administrative authority of the department, has asked all I-T ranges to identify such cases where revenue implication is large and initiate prosecution in competent courts. The action will be taken under Section 276B...

-Live Mint Govt reiterates it will crack down hard on tax evaders, defends steps introduced in Finance Bill to check evasion The government on Tuesday reiterated its intention to crack down hard on tax evaders and defended some of the stringent provisions introduced in the Finance Bill last week to check evasion, including granting wider powers of arrest to taxmen and making certain offences non-bailable. Finance minister P. Chidambaram, in his budget speech...