March 15, 2015

ALB20150303

Abhyaas Law Bulletin

For the quintessential CLAT aspirant
The Scoop Of The Month
India bans BBCs Indias Daughter

The Editors Column

Dear Student,
Welcome to the March Edition of the Law Bulletin.
Be prepared to pay up more when you eat out, for
this times budget has seen a spike in service tax.

Even as the Indian government was pressing it not

to show the controversial documentary on the
December 16 gangrape, BBC decided to go ahead
with its telecast, saying that the film had handled
the issue responsibly.
Originally, BBC had decided to show it on March 8,
coinciding with International Womens Day, but
suddenly decided to advance it even as a storm
was raging in India, saying it will enable viewers to
see this incredibly powerful documentary at the
earliest opportunity.
The statement said the film handles the issue
responsibly and fully complied with BBCs
editorial guidelines.
The BBC statement came after the Indian
Parliament witnessed outrage over the interview
of gangrape convict, prompting the Modi
government to promise an in-depth inquiry and
disallowing its telecast.
A Delhi court has restrained media from
publishing, broadcasting, telecasting or uploading
the interview on the internet.
On her part, Udwin appealed to Prime Minister
Narendra Modi to view the documentary, which,
she said, was a gift to India, before any action
was taken on it.
Despite the ban from the Governments end, the
documentary went viral, with experts claiming
that it was impossible to pull it down from the
internet, as it had been shared across various
websites.

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The whole nation is busy keeping track of the ICC

Cricket World Cup, in which the Indians have managed
to get to the Quarter Finals, unbeaten.

The Indian Governments bans created a ruckus on

social media websites. The most talked about ones
were those on the Nirbhaya documentary by the BBC
and the other, the ban on beef in Maharashtra.
A curfew was imposed in Dimapur after a mob
comprising of thousands of people forced its way into
the Dimapur Central Jail, pulled out rape accused Syed
Farid Khan out of the prison, paraded him and then
lynched him on the streets. Khan had allegedly raped
a Naga woman several times before he was arrested.

Happy Reading !

Parvathy Bhardwaj
Index:
Page 2: National
Page 3: International
Page 4: Spotlight

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March 15, 2015

Arun Jaitley presents Union Budget
As Arun Jaitley presented the Union Budget 2015,
heres all you need to know about it.
1) Fiscal deficit seen at 3.9% of GDP in 2015-16,
committed to meeting medium term fiscal deficit
target of 3%.
2) GDP growth seen between 8% and 8.5% this year.
3) Consumer inflation to remain close to 5% by March,
more room for monetary policy easing.
4) No change in individual income tax rates and slabs,
overall deduction benefits to individual taxpayers
hiked to Rs 4.44 lakh a year.
5) Disinvestment target set at Rs 41,000 crore for 201516.
6) Exemption on health insurance premium hiked from
Rs 15,000 to Rs 25,000. For senior citizens it is hiked
to Rs 30,000.
7) Service tax rate hiked to 14% from 12.36%.
8) To implement Goods and Services Tax by April 2016.
9) Wealth tax abolished. To be replaced by surcharge of
2% on income of Rs 1 crore and above. Move to
fetch govt Rs 9,000 cr against Rs 1,008 currently
mobilised under wealth tax.
10) Corporate tax rate to be reduced from 30% to 25%
over four years; deductions and exemptions to be
rationalised.
11) A new benami transaction bill to be introduced to
tackle domestic black money; enforcement agencies
empowered to attach assets held abroad illegally;
undisclosed income to be taxed at maximum
marginal rate, deductions and exemptions for such
income won't be allowed; 10 years rigorous
imprisonment for concealing foreign assets.
Maharashtra bans beef, 5 years jail, Rs 10,000 fine for
possession or sale
Beef lovers in Maharashtra will now have to do without
the red meat as President Pranab Mukherjee has given
his assent to the Maharashtra Animal Preservation
(Amendment) Bill, 1995, nearly 19 years after the
Maharashtra Assembly passed the Bill during the BJPShiv Sena rule in 1995.
The passage of the new Act will ban the slaughter of
bulls as well as bullocks, which was previously allowed
based on a fit-for-slaughter certificate.
The new Act will, however, allow slaughter of water
buffaloes, which provides carabeef generally seen as
an inferior quality meat that makes up only 25 per cent
of the total beef market in the state. Beef traders claim
the move will not only render thousands jobless,

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but will also drive up the cost of other meats in

the state.
The President had signed the Bill and sent it to the
Ministry of Home Affairs, which then informed the
Maharashtra Governor of the decision.
Now, anyone found to be selling beef or in
possession of it can be jailed for five years and
fined Rs 10,000.
The beef trade in the state is largely controlled by
Muslims of the Qureshi caste. Beef, generally seen
as the poor mans meat, costs almost a third of
mutton. Mumbai alone consumes nearly 90,000
kg of mutton everyday, sold through 900 licensed
stalls and an equal number of illegal stalls.
Beef traders said they are checking if they can
take legal recourse. Right-wing groups and Jain
organisations have been asking for shutting down
of the abattoirs and beef trade in the state.
Beef traders across Maharashtra were on strike
for over a week in February to protest against the
alleged harassment being meted out to beef
traders. Fadnavis had later assured protection to
beef traders after a delegation met him, which led
to the strike being called off.
Rail Budget 2015: No fare hike, no new trains
The government unveiled a reformist railway
budget focused on modernisation of the creaky
colonial-era network and massive investment
aimed at making the railways more passengerfriendly without increasing fares.
Presenting the railway budget, Railway Minister
Suresh Prabhu said it "set the direction of a long
and difficult road of reform".
Shedding the populism of the past, the rail budget
demonstrated the Modi governments intent to
turn the cash-strapped public transporter into a
modern enterprise with a host of facilities such as
more high-speed trains, Wi-Fi at 400 stations,
CCTVs in trains for womens safety and easier
norms for unreserved tickets.
While Prabhu vowed to modernise existing
services, he also hiked freight rates for cement
and coal by up to 10% and did not announce any
new trains in the budget, unlike the past when
governments rolled out new services to garner
political
support.
Addressing the pressing issue of finances for the
railways, Prabhu proposed an operating ratio
below 90% to increase revenues for the system.

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March 15, 2015

Mufti Mohammed Sayeed sworn-in as J&K CM
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader Mufti
Mohammed Sayeed was sworn in as the 12th Chief
Minister of Jammu and Kashmir. His oath of office
and secrecy was administered by Governor NN
Vohra at Zorawar Singh Auditorium in Jammu
University.
This is the second time that Sayeed will be heading a
coalition government in the state. Earlier in 2002, he
led a PDP-Congress alliance government and was
Chief Minister for three years.
Nirmal Singh of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was
made the Deputy Chief Minister of the state. Apart
from Sayeed and Singh, 23 other leaders from both
PDP and BJP were sworn-in as ministers. Priya Sethi
(BJP) and Aasiya Naqqash (PDP) were the two
women legislators who took oath as ministers.
This is the first time that BJP has become a part of
the government in Jammu and Kashmir after PDP
and BJP agreed to form a coalition government as no
party secured an absolute majority in the J&K
Assembly elections in December 2014.
Land Acquisition Bill passed in Lok Sabha
The Lok Sabha passed the Land Acquisition
(amendment) Bill, 2015 by voice vote. The Bill
amends the Right to Fair Compensation and
Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and
Resettlement (RFCTLARR) Act, 2013.
Before being passed, the Union Government made
nine amendments in the Bill (more than 50 were
proposed) which was promulgated on 29 December,
2014. But, it refused to bring back the consent clause
or social impact assessment.
German rejects Indian application citing rape
German Professor Annette G Beck-Sickinger was in
news as she rejected an Indian students internship
request, citing rape problem in India. She is a
professor of biochemistry at Leipzig.
She rejected the application of the student, saying
she does not accept any Indian male student who
was seeking biochemistry internship. In the
rejection, she said that she has heard a lot about the
rape problem in India and she cannot support it.
Her action prompted a sharp reaction from the
German Ambassador in Delhi. Michael Steiner
condemned the incident saying India is not a country
of rapists.

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Olacabs acquires TaxiForSure

Online Taxi-service aggregator Olacabs acquired
Bengaluru-based rival TaxiForSure in a cash and
equity deal worth 200 million US dollars. This is
the first major acquisition in the taxi-aggregator
space in India.
As per the acquisition, the leadership and all 1700
employees of TaxiForSure will continue to work
with the company. Both the entities are going to
operate as individual entities even after the
acquisition.
Customers of the TaxiForSure can continue to
book a cab through the app, and the call centre
and drivers will continue to get access to
customers on TaxiForSures technology platform.
With this acquisition, Olas platform of 100000
vehicles will be enhanced by another 15000
vehicles of TaxiForSure.

International
87th
Oscar
Awards
get
underway
87th Academy Award, popularly called Oscar
Awards, was conferred on 22 February 2015. The
award ceremony was held at the Dolby Theatre in
Hollywood, Los Angeles.
The Oscar Awards for the year 2015 were
presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts
and Sciences (AMPAS) in 24 categories.
The awards were produced by Neil Meron and
Craig Zadan and directed by Hamish Hamilton.
Actor Neil Patrick Harris hosted the ceremony for
the first time.
The list of winners of 87th Academy Awards
Best Picture: Birdman
Best Director: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu for
Birdman
Best Actor: Eddie Redmayne for The Theory of
Everything
Best Actress: Julianne Moore for Still Alice
Best Supporting Actor: JK Simmons for Whiplash
Best Supporting Actress: Patricia Arquette for
Boyhood
Achievement in Costume Design: Milena
Canonero for The Grand Budapest Hotel
Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling: Frances
Hannon and Mark Coulier for The Grand
Budapest Hotel
Best Foreign Language Film: Ida directed by
Pawel Pawlikowski

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March 15, 2015

This month in pictures:

Marylebone Cricket Club

(MCC) awarded Honorary
Life Membership to
Sourav Ganguly.

Bollywood actor Ashraful Haque

passed away in Mumbai after
suffering from Myelodysplastic
Syndrome. He was 46.

Eminent scientist Tapan

Misra was appointed as the
Chief of ISROs Space
Applications Centre (SAC)
at Ahmedabad, Gujarat.

Chief Minister (CM) of Bihar

Jitan Ram Manjhi resigned and
recommended the dissolution
of the Bihar Assembly.

Raosaheb Ramrao Patil, former

Home Minister of Maharashtra
and NCP leader, died in
Mumbai after suffering from
oral cancer. He was 57.

Virat Kohli became the first

Indian cricketer to score a
century against Pakistan in
the ICC World Cup.

Spotlight: Symbiosis Law School, Pune

Symbiosis Law School, Pune originally known as Symbiosis
Society's Law College, was established in 1977 under the
banner of Symbiosis Society. Active clubs and societies of
Symbiosis Law School, Pune include the Human Rights Cell
(HRC), The Environment Protection and Consumer Rights
Organization (Ecocon), Legal Aid and Literacy Cell, Tech Legal
Cell, Alumni Cell, Corporate Cell, Law Hawks Forum,
International Cell - ILSA, Sports Committee, Law and
Economics cell(LAWECON)
Admission for Undergraduate Programmes is through Symbiosis Entrance Test (SET)which is a common
written test for the admission processes of Undergraduate Institutes of Symbiosis International University
(SIU). The Entrance Test is followed by Group Exercise and Personal Interview .
The total intake is 200 seats (inclusive of 150 seats of B.B.A.LL.B and 50 seats of B.A.LL.B). Symbiosis Law
School, Pune has been ranked fifth and sixth of India Today and Outlook's ranking respectively.
SLS is conferred with the honour of being a core partner in the global network of legal institutes, the
Erasmus Mundus, DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) a grant for bilateral exchange with Leibniz
University of Hannover, Germany.
Feel free to write to: [email protected] We dont wish to print this journal, save paper, avoid printing.

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