The Crusader’s Column
The Crusader is back – with us. Shiva Kant Jha, a former Chief Commissioner of Income Tax who resembles RK Laxman's common man in looks, has been running a single handed crusade against the Government's Double Tax Avoidance Treaties, especially the Mauritius one. In 2000, he had successfully moved a public interest petition before the Delhi High Court, bringing before it his long and distinguished experience not only as a tax administrator but also as a legal practitioner in the Supreme Court Bar in such matters. In its judgement the High Court commended Jha for having "done a noble job in bringing into focus as to how the government has been losing crores and crores of rupees by allowing an opaque system to operate”
But the Supreme Court over ruled the Delhi High Court judgement. The Apex court had remarked that it was for Parliament to take the initiative to plug the loopholes.
We, TIOL had the privilege of having Mr Jha with us while we made our presentation to the Parliamentary Committee on Taxation Laws. We took him as an Income Tax expert – after a few words on Income Tax amendments, he told the Committee that there was a more important issue draining the country – the tax treaties and went on as the Parliamentarians listened in rapt attention to his treatise on the treaty with Mauritius.
Mr Jha had been a distinguished contributor to TIOL’s columns. His battle against treaty shopping is now a book for posterity and the present generation. The spirited fighter will now write a fortnightly column for us starting today.
Mr Jha is fond of the famous quote from Gandhari and says – “None can enter the Supreme Court, or address the Court without reading umpteen times the text on the emblem of the Court: Yato Dharmashstato Jayah upholding the lions on whose summit is Dharmachakra! These words were uttered not by a jurist or a judge, but by an ordinary housewife, Gandhari, who blessed her son Duryodhana, before he left for the Mahabharat War, telling him the inexorable rule that victory goes with Dharma”
“Yatoh Dharmahstatoh Jayah (Where dharma is; victory is surely there).”
Read him in our Azadi Bachao