Court News

TN moves SC against HC order on liquor shops

Closure will lead to ‘grave’ revenue loss

10/05/2020, KRISHNADAS RAJAGOPAL,NEW DELHI

The Tamil Nadu government on Saturday moved the Supreme Court against a Madras High Court order of May 8 to close liquor shops in the State with immediate effect to maintain physical distancing till the COVID-19 lockdown is lifted or modified. It said an indefinite closure of liquor shops would lead to ‘grave’ revenue and commercial losses.

Highlighting that the ban order was passed the very same day the Supreme Court dismissed an identical call to close liquor shops across the country, the State contended that the High Court order amounted to judicial overreach.

Court news

Supreme Court disposes of plea of private college students to get fee relief amid COVID-19 lockdown

The apex court asked the petitioners' advocate how the colleges will run if it failed to receive fees. From where will the colleges give salary to their employees, the court asked.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday (May 8) disposed of petition of students from private colleges seeking fee rebate in the wake of coronavirus lockdown that led to loss of jobs and salary deduction of many parents.

The apex court asked the petitioners' advocate how the colleges will run if it failed to receive fees. From where will the colleges give salary to their employees, the court asked.

The petitioner also requested the court to order the college administration to allow some relaxation to students but the top court refused to make any direction saying that they should talk to the concerned university.

The students' plea was based on the fact that due to the COVID-19 lockdown, industries are suffering huge losses. Companies are cutting their employees' salary and millions have already lost their jobs. The central and state governments have already appealed to private schools not to increase the fees of children. 

Notably, many parents have lost their jobs during the lockdown. In such a situation, they are not able to pay the hefty fees of their children studying in private colleges. The petition sought to draw the Supreme Court's attention to this issue but the top court refused the plea.

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SC Imposes Costs of Rs. 10,000 and Dismisses Petition Seeking for Use of 'Physical Distancing' Instead of 'Social Distancing' [Read Order]: The Supreme Court dismissed a petition seeking for directions for use of the term 'physical distancing' instead of 'social distancing' and imposed costs of Rs. 10,000/-. The plea, filed by...

Delhi HC Gives Relief To Ad-Hoc Assistant Professor Whose Services Were Terminated For Taking A Maternity Break [Read Order]

Delhi HC Gives Relief To Ad-Hoc Assistant Professor Whose Services Were Terminated For Taking A Maternity Break [Read Order]: Delhi High Court has quashed the termination letter of an ad-hoc Professor whose contract was not renewed by the College as she had taken a maternity leave, which was not approved by the said...

Lockdown doubts

Flight info

Tears Of Relief At Arrival And Departure

First Air India Flight From Singapore Carrying 234 Indian Passengers Lands

Pankhuri.Yadav@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:  09.05.2020

At 12.05pm on Friday, Air India flight AI-381 made a smooth landing at Indira Gandhi International Airport. Though half an hour late in arriving, the 234 passengers from Singapore were delighted to step on home soil after two months of anxiety and uncertainty. Their relatives weren’t allowed to meet them, and yet the relief of being back in India made them grin, wave their hands and give the thumbs up sign.

It was only around 3pm that the scrutiny of the passengers got over. The first lot of the stranded Indians being brought home from abroad under the Vande Bharat Mission, the returnees had their documents inspected and then underwent medical checks to ascertain their Covid status. Only after this three-hour exercise did they board the buses organised to take them into quarantine at hotels in Aerocity, Dwarka and south Delhi. Travellers from the neighbouring states of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh were driven there in other buses.

In a tweet, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal welcomed the passengers and assured them that all arrangements had been made for all Indians arriving in Delhi from other countries.

Till Friday, the number of coronavirus cases in Singapore had logged 21,707, with 20 deaths. So, the arriving Indians will spend 14 days in paid quarantine in the designated hotels before they can be reunited with their families at home. “The residents of Delhi will stay in 8-10 hotels that have been readied in New Delhi, south and southeast Delhi as well as at Aerocity,” said a government official.

Nearly 20 buses, including some from UP, Haryana and Punjab, were deployed at IGIA to ferry the people to the quarantine facilities. As per the standard operating procedures for dealing with Indians arriving at IGIA, resident commissioners and nodal officers of other states will take care of the transport and quarantine of their respective residents.

Medical teams comprising staff from the municipal bodies and Rao Tularam Memorial Hospital, Jaffar Kalan, screened the arrivals from Singapore, while taking strict precautionary measures to avoid any possible infection.

The spokesperson of IGIA operator Delhi International Airport Limited said the SOP for handling passengers on repatriation flights envisaged social distancing during boarding and disembarking. “The airlines, their ground handlers, DIAL staff, immigrations, CISF and Customs will be supporting the Airport Health Organisation (APHO) and Delhi government in the operations,” the spokesperson said.

On Thursday at 11.30pm, the first Vande Bharat Mission flight had left for Singapore empty from Delhi. In the other 64 planned flights, 14 of them landing at IGIA, Air India will not only be bringing back Indians stranded abroad due to the Covid crisis, but will also fly people out to the US, UK and Singapore, bookings for which are now open. During the weeklong mission till May 13, there will be flights to locations like Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines and the United Kingdom. Indians from other countries such as Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, UAE and the US will also be flown home over the next seven days.

Former RBI Governor prescription

How best to stimulate economy? Here’s Dr Rajan’s prescription

09.05.2020 TOI 

The coronavirus crisis has crippled the economy and there’s little choice for the government but to provide a bigger stimulus to revive demand. Many have argued that while India’s lockdown has been the harshest, its stimulus package is one of the smallest — so far. To fund a bigger public spending programme, the government can either ask the RBI to print more money (monetise the deficit) or it can issue new bonds to be subscribed by the banks (raise money through borrowing). In a LinkedIn post, former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan explained how the two paths work and why ‘monetisation’ is a good option in the short-term and withing reasonable limits

SO, IS THIS A FREE LUNCH FOR THE GOVT?

“Direct RBI financing is sometimes loosely termed money printing and thought to be free”, but Rajan says this is “misleading”. The reason is because the government finances itself from RBI while RBI finances itself from the banks at the reverse repo rate of 3.75%.

This represents a loss to the government in two ways: first, a reduction in the annual dividend RBI pays the government. Second, banks get 3.75% instead of the 6% they could get by buying government bonds directly. And since the government owns 70% of the banking sector, its dividends from public sector banks also fall commensurately.

WILL IT FUEL INFLATION?

Such direct financing is “not inflationary per se” as long as banks are reluctant to lend further to business or consumers. However, Rajan points out that as normal times return, RBI will have to pay a higher rate on excess reserves, or sell its government bond holdings and extinguish excess reserves, else it will risk excessive credit expansion and inflation.

Rajan says that if the fiscal deficit and the growth in government debt is deemed unsustainable, “investors and rating agencies will take fright”. He thus calls for measures that ensure “we will go back to fiscal health over the medium term”.

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The government should be concerned about protecting the health of the economy and should spend what is needed. Obviously, it should try and cut back unneeded spending, and prioritise. It should also worry about getting the fiscal deficit and its debt back in shape over the medium term… However, its inability to finance itself or fears of monetisation should not be a constraint. Monetisation will neither be a game-changer nor a catastrophe, if done in a measured way