Power Shutdown

Three doctors granted bail in Payal Tadvi case
10/08/2019,MUMBAI

Three doctors arrested for allegedly abetting the suicide of 26-year-old Payal Tadvi on BYL Nair Hospital premises were granted bail by the Bombay High Court. While granting bail, the court said, “Let them remain in public domain with this stigma and this order”. It directed them to pay ₹2 lakh each.

‘All students entitled to pay, allowances’

10/08/2019, LEGAL CORRESPONDENT, CHENNAI

Observing that acquisition of knowledge and not its means was important, the Madras High Court on Friday held that government doctors must be paid salary and other service benefits even if they had acquired higher qualification from deemed universities without participating in single window counselling.

Justice V. Parthiban said the government could not insist that the in-service doctors must get admitted to post graduate courses only in government institutions or in seats surrendered to the government by self-financing colleges, especially when it was common knowledge that very few seats were available in the State for PG medical courses.

The government could not refuse to grant pay and allowances, for the period of study, to candidates who had pursued PG course from private institutions by paying money from their own pockets. It had to take the totality of circumstances in consideration on a case-to-case basis and pay full allowances to deserving candidates, he said.

Can’t pay HC staff more for working long hours: govt.
‘Wages on a par with SC staff will cost exchequer ₹15.56 cr.’

10/08/2019, LEGAL CORRESPONDENT,CHENNAI

The 3,800 odd employees of the Madras High Court and its Madurai Bench cannot seek a much higher scale of pay than that of Tamil Nadu Secretariat staff and other government employees just because they end up working way beyond the official working hours on most days, the State government has told the court.

Filing a counter affidavit to a writ petition filed by the Madras High Court and Madurai Bench Officers and Staff Association, represented by its secretary A. Raman, the government said, “It is the bounden duty of the staff to work with care and dedication... Hence, the nature of work rendered by them cannot be compared with others.” The counter filed by T. Vaidegi, Deputy Secretary, Home department and served on the counsel for the petitioner association J. Nagarajan on Thursday, also stated that it would cost the exchequer ₹15.56 crore per annum if the salary of Madras High Court staff was increased on par with what was paid to the Supreme Court and Delhi High Court staff.

Further, since the High Court staff as well as the Secretariat staff were now receiving a similar pay, which was higher than that of other government employees in the State, any increase in the salary of court staff would lead to a similar demand by the Secretariat staff followed by the other government employees, the Deputy Secretary said. She also claimed that a reading of a communication received from the Registrar General of the High Court, with respect to enhancing the pay of the court staff, on February 10, 2017 only shows that the Staff Grievance Committee (comprising the High Court judges) had only directed the Registry to address the government for consideration of the proposal.

Further, the then Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul (now a Supreme Court judge) had only approved the committee’s direction to forward the proposal to the government. The petitioner association was not right in stating that the Chief Justice had approved the decision to enhance the pay, the State claimed.

On the other hand, after the receipt of the proposal from the R-G, the government on February 22, 2017 constituted an official committee to examine and make recommendations on revision of pay scale and allowances for employees of the State government and local bodies on the basis of the recommendations made by the seventh Central Pay Commission.

The official committee’s recommendations were accepted on October 11, 2017 and a government order was issued revising the pay and allowances of government staff.

Simultaneously, the Chief Justice of the High Court, with the approval of the Governor, revised the pay scale for around 3,810 employees. Since the revision, as per the latest Pay Commission, had been done after the receipt of the proposal on February 10, 2017, the government decided not accept that proposal.

Interim relief for Cognizant in ₹2,500 cr. tax dispute case
HC asks AAR (I-T) to desist from passing final orders till disposal of writ appeals
10/08/2019, LEGAL CORRESPONDENT,CHENNAI

The Madras High Court on Friday restrained the Authority for Advance Rulings (Income Tax) in Mumbai from passing final orders with respect to alleged tax dispute to the tune of over ₹2,500 crore involving software major Cognizant Technology Solutions India Private Limited and its non- resident shareholders Cognizant (Mauritius) Limited and Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation based in New Jersey.

Passing interim orders on writ appeals preferred by CTS India and Cognizant (Mauritius) challenging a single judge’s verdict, a Division Bench of Justices M.M. Sundresh and M. Nirmal Kumar said it would only be appropriate for the AAR (I-T) to desist from passing final orders on the issue until the disposal of the writ appeals.

The interim relief was granted at the instance of senior counsel Gopal Subramaniam representing CTS.

The appeals had been preferred against a judgment passed on June 25 by Justice K. Kalyanasundram, who held that writ petitions filed by CTS India and Cognizant (Mauritius) in 2018, challenging draft tax assessment, were not maintainable since there was an effective alternative remedy of filing statutory appeals before the authorities concerned.

He had granted liberty to the petitioners to approach the appellate authorities to get their grievances redressed.

However, assailing his order, the appellants claimed that they were entitled to invoke the writ jurisdiction of the High Court since it was their case that tax had been assessed on wrong presumption that the money paid to the foreign shareholders towards buyback of shares was actually payment of dividend.

Assessment orders

Asserting that CTS India had not paid any dividend to its shareholders, it was argued that the High Court could straightway set aside the assessment orders.

Even assuming that there existed an alternative remedy, that alone could not be cited as a reason to reject the writ petitions, they argued.

HC dismisses PIL against Jipmer’s Karaikal campus

10/08/2019, LEGAL CORRESPONDENT,CHENNAI

The Madras High Court on Friday dismissed a public interest litigation petition filed in 2017 alleging absence of sufficient facilities on the Karaikal campus of Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (Jipmer) for educating students and the misuse of the quota for locals.

Justices S. Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad rejected the PIL plea preferred by S. Sridhar, Puducherry union president of Tamizhaga Vazhvurimai Katchi, after the counsel for Jipmer M.T. Arunan listed the facilities available at the off-site campus and accused the petitioner of having filed the case with false claims.

He said that a detailed counter affidavit had been filed in 2017 itself and it stated that the campus at Karaikal had been established on 80 acres of land.

Constable returns lost papers to senior citizen

Woman loses bag while in queue

10/08/2019, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT,CHENNAI

In a rare gesture, a police constable attached to the Tamil Nadu special police reached out to a senior citizen at her doorstep and handed over documents that she had lost while waiting for a darshan of Athi Varadhar in Kancheepuram.

Radhabhai, a senior citizen from Perambur, visited Kancheepuram for Athi Varadhar darshan recently. While she was standing in the queue, she lost her handbag which contained her Aadhar and PAN cards, voter ID and ₹3,500 in cash. She did not prefer any complaint.

Fast response

But Asirvatham, a constable attached to the Tamil Nadu special police, spotted the handbag on the ground. He found cash and documents of the woman inside. He collected her address from the documents and the next day, he reached her house in Perambur.

When he knocked her door, she was surprised to see a police constable with her handbag. After verification, Asirvatham handed over the handbag to her and left the place for bandobust duty in Kancheepuram.

The constable’s gesture went viral on social networking platforms and was appreciated by people.