NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday said the auction route was not the only method for allocating natural resources. The court said this while answering a Presidential Reference seeking its opinion on whether auction was the only method for allocating natural resources across the board. 

The five-judge Supreme Court Bench headed by Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia said auction could be a better option where the aim is maximisation of revenue, but then “every method other than auction of natural resources cannot be shut down”. 

Giving its advisory opinion on the Presidential Reference moved by the Union government on whether all natural resources should be auctioned transparently, the court said its verdict on cancellation of 2G licences was confined to allocation of spectrum and it had not laid down any rule for other resources. 

On August 16, 2012, at the end of marathon arguments from July 10, 2012, a five-judge Constitution Bench reserved orders on the reference moved by the government on April 12, 2012. 

Observing that it could not prescribe or proscribe a method of allocation of natural resources but can undertake judicial scrutiny on case to case basis, the court said allocation of natural resources was a policy decision which should be backed by social and welfare measures. 

The court also said that the policy of auction had not got a Constitutional mandate. 

The Centre for Public Interest Litigation had argued that the court should not permit the government to invoke the advisory jurisdiction under Article 143 of the Constitution to circumvent inconvenient judgments like the 2G ruling. The present reference was a convenient or expedient exercise to overcome an inconvenient ruling. 

Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy had produced documents to prove that the reference was unnecessary as the government had accepted 69 of the 81 recommendations of the Ashok Chawla Committee that suggested natural resources be auctioned. However, the Centre informed the court that it had not done so. — Agencies

NEW DELHI: Hailing the Supreme Court judgement on auction of natural resources, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal on Thursday said the court has brought “Constitutional clarity” on the issue.

Stating that the Court has upheld the government’s stand, Sibal said it has opined that auction was not the only way for allocating natural resources.

Institutions like CAG “might have perhaps unwittingly, erroneously interpreted the Supreme Court judgement relating to the 2G case and thought that all natural resources must be auctioned,” he said. “The Supreme Court has provided Constitutional clarity today and we welcome it.” 

Welcoming the Supreme Court decision, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma said the judgement “vindicates” the position that the government had taken.

“When a state has to take decisions, public good has to be kept in mind... The Supreme Court has also upheld, that it is public good which is important, and revenue maximisation is subservient to that, not the other way round,” he said. “And all national resources (are) not meant to be auctioned.” 

Sharma said there has been lot of confusion, some deliberately created, and also fed by some elements of political forces who are opposed to the government.

“...There was never any doubt in my mind, or in the mind of my colleagues of the government, (that) there was no Constitutional mandate for auction,” he added. — PTI

NEW DELHI: The exit of Ajit Pawar from the Maharashtra government on Thursday appeared certain with NCP supremo Sharad Pawar saying the issue of the Deputy Chief Minister’s resignation is over for the party. 

At the same time, the NCP chief said the offer of resignation of 19 other Ministers of the party in the state has not been accepted. 

He saw no threat to the stability of the Maharashtra coalition in which his party has been a major partner for the past 13 years. 

Maintaining that the decision to resign as Deputy Chief Minister was taken by Ajit himself , Sharad Pawar told PTI that after the party leadership gave Ajit “permission” to step down after due consideration, he handed over the resignation letter to Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan. 

“After that, the issue of the resignation is over for the NCP,” he said, noting that Ajit had wanted to put in his papers so that there should not be any doubt about he pressurising anybody on the white paper on irrigation projects, an idea floated by the Chief Minister. 

Ajit Pawar resigned two days back in the wake of his alleged involvement in irrigation scam of Rs 20,000 crores during his ten year tenure as Water Resources Minister between 1999 to 2009. Nineteen other party Ministers also offered to quit in solidarity. 

The NCP chief said that he would be reaching Mumbai tomorrow evening and persuade the party MLAs who have been pressing Ajit to take back his decision. 

Pawar is leaving for Kolhapur on Thursday to attend the funeral of former Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Babasaheb Kupekar, who died yesterday. He would be later going to Belgaum and then fly to Mumbai. 

Asked whether the issue figured at the UPA Coordination Committee meeting, Pawar wondered how could it be possible as it was an internal issue of NCP. — PTI

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected CBI's plea to cancel the bail granted to former Gujarat minister Amit Shah in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case, but agreed to transfer the trial from Gujarat to Mumbai.

"We are against the plea for the cancellation of the bail and the petition is dismissed," a Bench comprising Justice Aftab Alam and Ranjana Prakash Desai said.

"We, however, allow the transfer petition and agree to transfer the case to Mumbai," the bench said.

The court also permitted Shah to enter and travel in Gujarat in view of the upcoming assembly elections.

CBI had approached the apex court against the bail granted to Shah by the Gujarat High Court in the case of fake encounter killing of gangster Sohrabuddin Sheikh and for shifting the trial of the case to a place outside Gujarat.

Sheikh and his wife Kauser Bi were allegedly abducted by Gujarat's Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) from Hyderabad and killed in a fake encounter near Gandhinagar in November 2005.

Shah, a close aide of chief minister Narendra Modi, was arrested by CBI on July 25, 2010 and had spent over three months in Sabarmati Jail in Ahmedabad.

Shah had to quit the Modi government in July last year after having been slapped with charges of kidnapping and murder in connection with the case. CBI has alleged that he was the "kingpin" of the conspiracy in the case.

The agency had earlier urged the apex court to transfer the trial outside Gujarat arguing that witnesses were being intimidated and the trial could not be held in a free and fair manner. — PTI

NEW DELHI: With the exit of Trinamool Congress from UPA, the finance ministry has decided to levy service tax on AC rail travel and freight services fares, which are set to increase by 3.7% from October 1.

Fares of AC first class, executive class, AC-2 tier, AC-3 tier, AC chair car will go up by 3.7% from October 1 and a notification to this effect will be issued on Thursday, a senior railway ministry official said.

The decision for levying service tax on AC classes and freight and auxiliary services was taken on Wednesday at a meeting between railway minister CP Joshi and finance minister P Chidambaram.

The service tax will apply to tickets issued in advance for journeys to commence on or after the date of its implementation. In case of tickets already issued excluding service tax, it will be ensured that the same is recovered either by TTEs in the train or by the booking offices before commencement of journey.

In case of cancellation of tickets by the passengers, service tax will not be refunded by railways, the official said.

On concessional tickets, service charges will be 30% of the total fare.

The service tax is 12.36% but after the abatement of 70% it will be 3.708% on passenger fares in AC classes and freight.

Passengers travelling in AC classes were brought under service tax from July this year as per the Finance Bill 2012 but the levy had since been kept in abeyance because of opposition by the TMC.

Freight rate will also go up by 3.708% from October. However, auxiliary services rendered at stations like catering and parking will have to bear the burden of 12.36% as there will be no abatement on these services.

Service tax on freight was announced in 2009-10 Union Budget but then railway minister Mamata Banerjee had protested the move. — PTI

Hina-Bilawal rumours just 'social media gossip'
for Khar's husband

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar's husband Feroz Gulzar has rubbished rumours about differences in their relationship as a campaign to malign his wife. Gulzar, an industrialist from Punjab province, was quoted by Geo News channel on Thursday as saying that the campaign to malign his wife was 'rubbish' that does not merit comment.

He further said there was 'no premise for such trash' and that he would not offer any comment on 'social media gossip'.

There has been considerable speculation about the fate of Khar's marriage to Gulzar since a little-known Bangladeshi tabloid claimed without any proof she was allegedly involved in a relationship with Bilawal Bhutto, son of President Asif Ali Zardari.

Gulzar said he had been informed about reports of his purported differences with his wife by his cousins, who had described the reports available on the Internet as 'not worth reading'.

Gulzar was quoted as saying that he was not aware of the details of these reports.

Asked about rumours of his separation from his wife, Gulzar said no such issue was being considered by him.

He further said it was unfortunate that the persons behind such gossip had dragged his two young daughters into the affair.

Gulzar said it was regrettable that there is no system in Pakistan to identify those responsible for 'such rumour-mongering'.

He brushed aside a suggestion that US authorities should be asked to look into the matter, saying: "It wouldn't be appropriate to ask them for a probe".

Khar, who is currently in the US as part of President Asif Ali Zardari's delegation to attend the UN General Assembly session, was quoted by Geo News as saying that she too would not comment on such a "reprehensible matter". — PTI