• NATIONAL

Finance Minister unveils Union Budget 2010

The Finance Minister unveiled the Union Budget 2010 on 26th February. The salaried middle class got an unexpected windfall of up to Rs 56,000 per annum from the reworked personal income tax slabs and a new tax exemption option. As for Indian corporates, the surcharge on corporate tax has come down from 10% to 7.5%; however, minimum alternate tax (MAT) has been hiked from 15% to 18%. Fuel Prices has been hiked by way of excise and customs duty increase on crude oil and petroleum products.

Sale of Mont Blanc's Mahatma Gandhi pens stayed by Kerala High Court

The Kerala High Court has ordered Mont Blanc to file an affidavit or undertaking to stay the sale of the controversial Mahatma Gandhi Limited Edition pens until final orders from the Court. A Public Interest Litigation was filed in the Kerala High Court against Mont Blanc and its Indian distributor, Entrack International to restrict the sale of the controversial pens.

Green Bench to be constituted by Himachal High Court

The Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court has announced that the High Court of Himachal Pradesh would constitute a special "Green Bench" to hear environment, mining and forest matters in order to deal with the massive number of environmental cases pending in the High Court. The Green Bench will start functioning from February 26 and will meet every Friday, and if the need arises, on Saturdays as well. All environment-related matters will be transferred to the Green Bench.

SC upholds 'Office of profit' amendment as constitutional

A three-Judge Bench of the Supreme Court comprising Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justices R.V. Raveendran and J.M. Panchal upheld the validity of the 2006 amendment to the Parliament (Prevention of Disqualification) Act, 1950, popularly known as the 'Office of Profit' Act and thereby lent judicial sanction to the amendment which exempted 55 offices occupied by members of the Parliament from the purview of the Act. The Supreme Court held that the Parliament had the legislative competence to effect legislation retrospectively. The Bench further held that it was the prerogative of Parliament to decide which post could be exempted from the 'Office of Profit'.

CBDT recommends change in law to condone delay in tax cases

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has proposed amendments to law to empower High Courts to condone a delay in filing tax appeals or applications. The proposed amendment will be similar to the one announced in Budget 2009-10 for the Excise Department that had empowered High Courts to pardon delays, albeit for genuine reasons, in filing appeals or applications or objections by the Excise Department.

Central Empowered Committee (CEC) to lay down principles for mining activity

The Central Empowered Committee (CEC) of the Supreme Court of India would lay down the principles to guide mining operations in adherence to protection of forest and environment. CEC has stated that the state government should grant mining lease (ML) to a person only when there is a forest clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forests and also environmental clearance from the State Pollution Control Board.

The Government has decided to introduce the Bill on the Women’s day, cleared by cabinet on 25th February.

Anti dumping duty on Acetone will most likely be imposed on imports of chemical used by drug makers. This is planned in order to protect domestic industry from cheap Japanese and Thai shipments.

Under Minimum Wages Act 1948 both Central and State Government can fix/revise Min. wages in Schedule employment in their respective spheres. Domestic workers fall under the State sphere already included by States viz. AP, Bihar, Karnataka, Rajasthan and UT of Dadra and Nagar Haveli. The PIB Release issued on March 3, 2010 reads as under:

Under the provisions of Minimum Wages Act, 1948, both the Central and State Governments can fix/revise minimum wages in the Schedule employment in their respective spheres. Since domestic workers fall under the purview of State sphere, some of the States have included domestic workers as a schedule employment. These States include Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli. On the basis of information available, the hourly/daily/monthly rates of wages fixed for domestic workers by these States are as under:

The Government has enacted the Unorganised Workers’ Social Security Act, 2008 for the social security and welfare of unorganised workers which includes domestic workers. The National Social Security Board constituted under the Act has constituted a Sub-Committee of the Board to explore the extension of Social Security Schemes for unorganized workers. The said Sub-Committee recommended domestic workers as one of the categories to be considered for social security. Accordingly, the Government has set-up a Task Force to evolve a policy frame work for domestic workers in the context of regulatory mechanism and providing social security. The Task Force has been examining various issues such as extending coverage of Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), health and maternity benefits, life and disability benefit, old age pension, etc., to domestic workers. It has held three meetings on 13th January, 2010, 1st February, 2010 and 25th February, 2010. The Task Force is likely to submit its Report soon.

This information was given by Shri Mallikarjun Kharge, Minister Of Labour And Employment in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha today

• INTERNATIONAL

Legal Outsourcing gets formal support from Ohio Supreme Court

The Ohio Supreme Court's Board of Commissioners on Grievances & Discipline has offered guidance to the state's lawyers on outsourcing legal and allied services. The advisory states that the Ohio Rules of Professional Conduct does not prohibit use of outsourcing services. Although advisory opinions are non-binding, this is the first time that a State Supreme Court has officially approved legal outsourcing.

South Korean High Court rules death penalty as constitutional

The Constitutional Court of Korea ruled that imposition of death penalty does not violate the South Korean constitution. The court's decision could lead to a reinstatement of the death penalty in South Korea, which has had an unofficial moratorium on capital punishment since 1998. The South Korean parliament must vote on whether to reinstate capital punishment before any changes to the current system can take effect.

European Commission examining into possible antitrust violations by Google

The European Commission (EC) confirmed that it has received three antitrust complaints against Google regarding the way the search engine ranks search results. UK price comparison company Foundem, French legal website EJustice and consumer review website Ciao claim that Google impedes users' abilities to find companies' websites to prevent the companies from competing with Google and that Google binds partners to unreasonable agreements.