THE HINDU – CURRENT NOTE 22 APRIL
Why force people to get Aadhaar, SC asks Centre
Making it mandatory for filing I-T returns is a legislative mandate: AG
•The Supreme Court on Friday questioned the Centre’s logic to make Aadhaar card mandatory for filing income tax returns, asking whether this would act as a remedy to end the generation of fake Permanent Account Number (PAN) and ration cards.
•“Is this the remedy? Forcing people to get Aadhaar cards?” Justice A.K. Sikri, who is heading a Bench also comprising Justice Ashok Bhushan, orally addressed Attorney-General of India Mukul Rohatgi.
•Mr. Rohatgi replied that making Aadhaar mandatory for filing income tax returns under Section 139AA was a “legislative mandate.”
Petitions
•The court was hearing petitions filed by Ramon Magsaysay award-winner Bezwada Wilson, former Kerala Minister Binoy Viswam and ex-Army officer S.G. Vombatkere, represented by senior advocates Arvind Datar and Shyam Divan and advocate Sriram Prakkat, challenging the constitutionality of Section 139AA inserted in the Income Tax Act by the Finance Act, 2017.
•The provision makes Aadhaar mandatory for getting a PAN. Possession of Aadhaar card is necessary for the continuing validity of an existing PAN and for filing returns under the income tax law.
•The Bench observed that the Supreme Court had asked the government to make Aadhaar optional until the very validity of the Aadhaar scheme on the basis of right to privacy was decided by the court.
•The court was referring to the October 15, 2015 order of a Constitution Bench led by then Chief Justice of India H.L. Dattu, which said “the Aadhaar card scheme is purely voluntary and it cannot be made mandatory till the matter is finally decided by this Court one way or the other.”
•To this, the top law officer submitted that the October 15 Constitution Bench order had referred to the voluntary use of Aadhaar in welfare schemes and not non-welfare activities like filing returns.
•Mr. Rohatgi said the Supreme Court itself had agreed to making Aadhaar mandatory in certain fields to protect identity and national security.
•“You [SC] yourself had recently ordered that Aadhaar should be made mandatory to procure SIM cards,” Mr. Rohatgi contended.
•He argued that fake PAN and ration cards have flooded the market and jinxed financial transactions.
•The government was referring to The Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act of 2016. The enactment of this Act as a Money Bill is itself under challenge in the Supreme Court on a petition filed by former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh.
Navy test-fires land attack variant of BrahMos missile
It enables vessels to neutralise selected targets deep inland
•The Indian Navy on Friday successfully carried out the maiden test-firing of the land attack variant of BrahMos supersonic cruise missile from a stealth frigate in the Bay of Bengal. The test-firing is seen as a major capability addition as, so far, the Navy has inducted only the anti-ship variant in many of the frontline vessels.
•“This variant of Long Range BrahMos Missile was fired from Indian Naval Ship Teg, a guided missile frigate, on a target on land,” the Navy said in a statement.
•Explaining the significance of the development, the statement said the land attack variant provides the naval ships the capability “to precisely neutralise selected targets deep inland, far away from coast, from stand-off ranges at sea.”
•Majority of the frontline ships of the Navy, like the Kolkata, Ranvir and Teg classes of ships, are capable of firing this missile.
•BrahMos, derived from Russian P-800 Oniks or Yakhont missile, is a joint product of India and Russia.
•The present range of the BrahMos is 290 km, which is now in the process of being extended up to 450 km following India’s entry into the Missile Technology Control Regime last year.
India, EU discuss next summit
Make a pitch for strengthening cooperation in fight against terror
•India and the European Union on Friday firmed up plans for holding the 14th bilateral summit to be held in India later this year. EU’s High Representative and Vice-President Federica Mogherini met External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj here and discussed common concerns like trade, counter-terror cooperation, maritime security and defence cooperation.
Reaffirms commitment
•“The two sides reaffirmed their commitment to deepening their Strategic Partnership. They reviewed progress on the commitments made during the 13th India-EU summit in Brussels in March 2016,” said a statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs.
•Ms. Swaraj condemned the latest terror attack in Paris and said terrorism was the gravest threat to humanity. “Both India and the EU should strengthen their cooperation to fight terrorism and demonstrate resolve to show zero-tolerance for such acts”, the statement said.
Centre does not care for widows, says SC
Slaps Rs. 1 lakh as fine on government
•In a stinging remark, the Supreme Court on Friday said when it passes some directions, it is claimed that the courts are “trying to run the government”, which does not want to act.
•“You [the government] do not want to do it and when we say anything, you say that the court is trying to run the government,” a Bench comprising Justices Madan B. Lokur and Deepak Gupta said, while castigating the government for not caring about the destitute widows in the country.
•The SC also imposed a cost of Rs. 1 lakh on the government for not coming out with the agreed directions to improve the condition of destitute widows, despite its direction and granted it four weeks to do so. “You do not care about the widows of India. You file an affidavit and say you are not concerned with the widows of India. You have done nothing... The government does not want to do anything,” the Bench said.
•The SC had earlier asked the Centre to convene a meeting to consider suggestions mooted by the National Commission for Women and formulate directions to improve the condition of widows.
Waiting for the Lokpal
When will the government operationalise the Lokpal law, even in its diluted form?
•In a hearing recently regarding non-operationalisation of the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, more than three years after the law was enacted, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi reportedly argued in the Supreme Court that the court has no powers to direct the government on when and how the law should be enforced.
•Failure to implement the Lokpal law by the Bharatiya Janata Party government is an indication of how the party is reneging with impunity on its poll promise of a corruption-free India. A lack of will on the part of the government to implement the anti-corruption law can be inferred from its various actions and inactions in the last three years.
•With the government’s refusal to recognise anyone as the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) after the general election in 2014, the appointment of the Lokpal became an immediate casualty as the selection committee of the Lokpal includes the recognised LoP. In order to operationalise the law, the government had its task cut out — introduce a Lokpal amendment Bill in Parliament substituting the recognised LoP in the selection committee with the leader of the single largest Opposition party in the Lok Sabha. In fact, a similar amendment was required in the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act for the appointment of the CBI Director; it was introduced by the government and passed expeditiously. However, for the Lokpal law, instead of bringing in a single amendment to alter the composition of the selection committee, the government introduced a 10-page Bill which proposed to fundamentally dilute the original law. Given the controversial nature of amendments, it was referred to a parliamentary standing committee. The Bill continues to languish in Parliament.
Diluting asset disclosure
•The Lokpal Act stipulated that by July 31, 2016, Section 44 related to disclosure of assets of public servants was to be operationalised irrespective of appointment of the Lokpal. To prevent the asset disclosure provision from taking effect, the government introduced another amendment Bill. This Bill, which completely whittled down the asset disclosure requirement, was resolutely pushed through by the government in Parliament and passed within 48 hours of its introduction. MPs from various political parties, who expressed concern that the amendments would dilute the original law, were assured by the Minister that once the Bill was passed it would be referred to a parliamentary standing committee for deliberation. It is significant that the Bill, pushed through in unprecedented haste, did not modify the composition of the selection committee which was needed to appoint the Lokpal.
•The law was thus diluted even before it could be operationalised. The Lokpal Amendment Act, 2016, did away with the statutory requirement of public servants to disclose the assets of their spouses and dependent children provided for under the original law. It also dispensed with the need for public disclosure of these statements and empowered the Central government to prescribe the form and manner of asset disclosure. This was a critical blow as the Lokpal was established to act on complaints under the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA); one of the grounds of criminal misconduct under the PCA relates to a public servant or any person on his/her behalf being in possession of pecuniary resources or property disproportionate to known sources of income. Since illegally amassed assets are often handed over to family members, public declaration of assets of the spouse and dependent children of the public servants was necessary to enable people to make informed complaints to the Lokpal.
•Further, the response to a query under the RTI Act revealed that the Minister had misled Parliament. Despite the Minister’s assurances on the floor of the House, the Lokpal Amendment Act, 2016, passed by Parliament was never referred to any parliamentary standing committee for deliberation.
Permission for prosecution
•The government’s intention to subvert the Lokpal law was further confirmed when through proposed amendments to the PCA, it sought to usurp critical powers of the Lokpal. Experience in India has shown that the requirement for seeking prior sanction from the government for prosecuting government officials is a critical bottleneck and results not only in huge delays but also, and often, in the accused never being prosecuted. To address this problem, the Lokpal Act vests the power of granting sanction for prosecution in the independent institution of the Lokpal. Instead of reinforcing this provision, which insulates the prosecution process from government influence, the PCA amendments strengthen the requirement to seek the government’s permission before prosecuting a public servant by increasing cover to even retired public officials. By requiring the Lokpal to seek permission from the government before it can prosecute officials in cases of corruption, the proposed PCA amendments make a mockery of the independent institution and render the entire exercise of demanding an empowered Lokpal futile.
•So when can the people of India reasonably expect the Modi government to operationalise the Lokpal law, even in its diluted form? Perhaps not anytime soon, if the statement of the Attorney General in the Supreme Court is anything to go by, wherein he cited the Delhi Rent Control Act which has not been implemented for 30 years.
Ease BHIM refund process, IT Minister Prasad tells NPCI
Feedback on cumbersome procedure spurs diktat
•IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has instructed National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to smoothen the refund mechanism for BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money) application.
•“This follows feedback highlighting that the process of getting a refund in BHIM application is more cumbersome compared to other applications,” a senior IT ministry official said.
•The issue was raised during the second review meeting on digital payments chaired by Mr. Prasad.
•“In the meeting, it was pointed out that now 56 crore bank accounts have been linked to Aadhaar, of the total 97 crore back accounts,” the official said, adding that the lag was due to some issues in states such as Assam and Meghalaya.
•According to government data, as on December 2017, Assam and Meghalaya have the lowest Aadhaar penetration at 6% and 9%, respectively.
•This means that about 41% of the bank accounts are still to be linked to Aadhaar.
•Further, the banks have been instructed to invest in and strengthen their IT infrastructure to deal with the rising number of digital payments and improve transaction success rates. Additionally, every bank has been instructed to have at least 30 Aadhaar biometric machines at every branch, and that 50 lakh such devices be installed in the current year.
•“We have also identified 15 government departments who have maximum interface with consumers. They will be instructed that all payments and receipts need to made cashless…All departments whose PSUs have a township will be instructed these be made completely digital,” the official said.
•The Ministry for IT earlier this year was given the mandate of spearheading the Modi-government's drive to push digital payments. Prior to this, Niti Aayog was responsible for promotion of digital transactions.
