TIOL-DDT 209 · the untouched capture
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<strong><font color="#6633CC" size="3">TIOL-DDT 209</font><font color="#CC99FF" size="4"><br>
</font></strong></font><font size="3" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong><font color="#000000" size="2">26
09 2005<br>
</font></strong></font><font color="#000000" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Monday</strong></font></div>
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
<p align="center"><strong><font color="#006633" size="2">UBI JUS IBI REMEDIUM
- There is no wrong without a remedy</font></strong></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2">He could have perhaps become an Inspector of
Customs and Central Excise very soon – had he been alive. But fate found
him dead in a Customs office hanging in the bathroom! Fate will take us where
we are wanted most – even into a death trap in a Customs bathroom. A young
life is lost. Is there a remedy? Now there will be plenty of inquiries and reports;
already a few innocent Customs officers are facing the music, while the guilty
may be celebrating somewhere! Custodial deaths are serious and unnerving incidents
for the Police. But should Customs get into such murky situations? In the name
of evidentiary value of statements, should Customs go the Police way in extracting
statements? It is time we have a re-look at the whole summons and statement
method of investigation. Just imagine how many lies are to be publicized and
how many records fudged to whitewash the incident of a poor boy dying in Customs
custody, most probably illegal. Please see our <strong>special story </strong>on
the custodial death in a Customs bathroom.</font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2">While at this, the observations of the Supreme
Court in the famous DK Basu case are worth recalling.</font></p>
</font>
<ul>
<li>
<div align="justify"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" align="justify"><font size="2"> The
law wills that in every case where man is wronged and damaged he must have
a remedy. <br>
</font></font></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" align="justify"><font size="2"> A
mere declaration of invalidity of an action or finding of custodial violence
or death in lock-up does not by itself provide any meaningful remedy to
a person whose fundamental right to life has been infringed. Much more needs
to be done.<br>
</font></font></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" align="justify"><font size="2"> No
one can suppose that the executive will never be guilty of the sins that
are common to all of us. <br>
</font></font></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" align="justify"><font size="2"> You
may be sure that they will sometimes do things which they ought not to do:
and will not do things that they ought to do. <br>
</font></font></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" align="justify"><font size="2"> But
if and when wrongs are thereby suffered by any of us what is the remedy?
<br>
</font></font></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" align="justify"><font size="2"> Our
procedure for securing our personal freedom is efficient, out procedure
for preventing the abuse of power is not. <br>
</font></font></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" align="justify"><font size="2"> Just
as the pick and shovel is no longer suitable for the mining of coal, so
also the procedure of mandamus, certiorari and actions on the case are not
suitable for the winning of freedom in the new age. <br>
</font></font></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" align="justify"><font size="2"> They
must be replaced by new and up-to date machinery by declarations, injunctions
and actions for negligence... This is not the task of Parliament... the
courts must do this. <br>
</font></font></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" align="justify"><font size="2"> Properly
exercised the new powers of the executive lead to the welfare state: but
abused they lead to a totalitarian state. "<br>
</font></font></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" align="justify"><font size="2"> Thus,
to sum up, it is now a well accepted proposition in most of the jurisdictions,
that monetary or pecuniary compensation is an appropriate and indeed an
effective and sometimes perhaps the only suitable remedy for redressal of
the established infringement of the fundamental right to life of a citizen
by the public servants and the State is vicariously liable for their acts.<br>
</font></font></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" align="justify"><font size="2"> The
claim of the citizen is based on the principle of strict liability to which
the defence of sovereign immunity is not available and the citizen must
receive the amount of compensation from the State, which shall have the
right to be indemnified by the wrong doer. <br>
</font></font></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" align="justify"><font size="2"> In
the assessment of compensation, the emphasis has to be on the compensatory
and not on punitive element. <br>
</font></font></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" align="justify"><font size="2"> The
objective is to apply balm to the wounds and not to punish the transgressor
or the offender, as awarding appropriate punishment for the offender, as
awarding appropriate punishment for the offence (irrespective of compensation)
must be left to the criminal courts in which the offender is prosecuted,
which the State, in law, is duty bound to do, <br>
</font></font></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" align="justify"><font size="2"> That
award of compensation in the public law jurisdiction is also without prejudice
to any other action like civil suit for damages which is lawfully available
to the victim or the heirs of the deceased victim with respect to the same
matter for the torturous act committed by the functionaries of the State.<br>
</font></font></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" align="justify"><font size="2"> The
relief to redress the wrong for the established invasion of the fundamental
rights of the citizen, under the public law jurisdiction is, in addition
to the traditional remedies and not in derogation of them.</font></font></div>
</li>
</ul>
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
<p align="center"><font color="#006633" size="2"> <strong>Don’t smoke; the
ashes you leave may be your own</strong></font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2">Cigarette giants who rushed to the North Eastern
states to get excise exemption benefit and disappeared from there with equal
speed if not more, when the exemption was withdrawn, are in for a shock as the
Supreme Court dismissed their petition against retrospective withdrawal of the
exemption. Once again upholding the parliament’s right to pass retrospective
legislation, the Supreme Court remarked,</font></p>
</font>
<ul>
<li>
<div align="justify"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" align="justify"><font size="2"><strong> The
competence of Parliament and State legislatures to repeal, amend or supersede
an exemption notification is unquestionable. <br>
</strong></font></font></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" align="justify"><strong><font size="2"> The
power to do so retrospectively cannot be and is also not doubted.<br>
</font></strong></font></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" align="justify"><strong><font size="2"> even
judicial decisions are in a sense retrospective. When a statute is interpreted
by a court, the interpretation is, by fiction of law, deemed to be part
of the statute from the date of its enactment <br>
</font></strong></font></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" align="justify"><strong><font size="2"> exemptions
granted was the quid in return for which the petitioners were not prepared
to suffer any quo. <br>
</font></strong></font></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" align="justify"><strong><font size="2"> Further
an individual who claims a vested right from the defects of law is seeking
a windfall and thus the interest in retrospective amendment over weighs
the individual’s interest in benefiting from the defect. <br>
</font></strong></font></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" align="justify"><strong><font size="2"> The
state has been deprived of revenue without any corresponding benefit</font></strong></font></div>
</li>
</ul>
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
<p align="justify"><font size="2">See our <strong>Breaking News</strong> for details
of the story. </font></p>
</font>
<div align="center"><font color="#006633" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Service
Tax on Sethusamudram</strong></font> </div>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">In
<strong>TIOL-DDT 149 - 04 07 2005</strong> we had pleaded for exempting the
<strong>Sethusamudram</strong> project from Service Tax. Now the Tuticorin Port
Trust Chairman N K Raghupathy says, “The service tax implication on the
dredging activities of the Rs 2,428 crore Sethusamudram project will have a
huge impact”</font></p>
<p align="center"><font color="#006633" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Service
Tax Collections – follow the Pak example</strong></font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Pakistan
has become a pioneer in tax reforms and it is acknowledged right across the
world. May be we can learn a couple of things from them especially on LTUs which
are already functioning there. Now Pakistan has come up with an easy way to
collect Service Tax on phones. The Head Office of the telephone company is required
to pay the tax to the Government by the 21st of the next month. A lot of accounting,
reporting, registration and such other hassles can be avoided if we follow this
system. We can also follow this system for certain major service providers,
especially state owned ones. For example BSNL can make one payment towards Service
Tax for all its offices and may be this can be done once in a month. This facility
can be extended to services like:-</font></p>
<ul>
<li><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" align="justify">general
insurance </font></li>
<li><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" align="justify">leased
circuit; </font></li>
<li><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" align="justify">Telex,
fax etc of the Telegraph Authority.</font></li>
<li><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" align="justify">Banks</font></li>
<li><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" align="justify">LIC</font></li>
</ul>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">An
officer was telling us the other day that a huge amount of Service Tax can be
collected at virtually no cost if a Service Tax of one rupee is levied on each
railway ticket. At the end of the month, quarter or year, the Railways can be
asked to issue one cheque for the tickets issued by it throughout India. That
will be much better than collecting pennies from barbers and cobblers in the
name of Service Tax.</font></p>
<p align="justify"><font color="#FF6666" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Until
Tomorrow with more DDT</strong></font></p>
<p align="justify"><strong><font color="#FF6666" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Have
a nice day. </font></strong></p>
<p align="justify"><strong><font color="#FF6666" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Mail
your comments to <a href="mailto:vijatwrite@taxindiaonline.com">vijaywrite@taxindiaonline.com</a></font></strong></p>
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