Author: colorsnews.in

New Delhi, Aug 5 (IANS) Both Houses of Parliament were adjourned for the day on Wednesday amid continuous noisy protests and disruptions by Opposition MPs demanding statehood for Jammu and Kashmir, a statement from the Home Minister on alleged police action against students, and accountability on Ram Temple donations.

The deadlock, however, did not prevent key legislative business from being transacted.

The Rajya Sabha cleared the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Amendment Bill, 2026, which raises the sanctioned strength of the apex court from 34 to 38 judges, including the Chief Justice of India.

The Bill, treated as a Money Bill, was returned to the Lok Sabha after consideration.

Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal underlined the need for a structural shift in the higher judiciary, citing the example of the Sabarimala case being heard by a nine-judge Bench, which leaves fewer judges available for other matters.

He said the increase would enable the Supreme Court to hear more cases simultaneously, improve the disposal rate, and make it easier for the Chief Justice of India to constitute Constitution Benches regularly.

Meghwal also referred to ongoing consultations on regional benches of the Supreme Court under Article 130 of the Constitution and reaffirmed the Union government’s commitment to the independence of the Judiciary.

He noted that after the earlier ordinance, one more woman judge had been appointed and expressed confidence that India would soon see a woman Chief Justice of India, in line with the government’s focus on Nari Shakti.

In the Lok Sabha, the Bankers’ Books Evidence Bill, 2026, was passed by voice vote without any discussion before the House was adjourned.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju urged Opposition MPs to allow the House to function and criticised the Congress, Communist party of India and the Samajwadi Party for politicising the alleged Ram Temple donations issue.

He also dismissed rumours of extending the Monsoon Session or convening a special session in mid-August.

Earlier on Wednesday, Opposition MPs led by Lok Sabha Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi marched from Prerna Sthal to Makar Dwar pressing their demands.

Amid the stalemate, Rijiju held a 50-minute meeting with Rahul Gandhi inside the Parliament complex in an attempt to break the deadlock.

Congress MPs also met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to object to certain remarks made against party members.

In the Rajya Sabha, Chairman C.P. Radhakrishnan repeatedly appealed for order, reminding members that entering the well of the House and displaying placards are prohibited.

Despite the heated atmosphere, the passage of the two Bills marked limited progress on a day otherwise dominated by protests and adjournments.

–IANS

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Srinagar, Aug 5 (IANS) J&K Police on Wednesday announced a reward of Rs 15 lakh for information leading to the arrest of a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist involved in the killing of a policeman on July 22 in Anantnag town.

Police have put up posters at prominent public places in the Valley seeking actionable information leading to the arrest of LeT terrorist Mohammad Lateef Bhat, who police said is involved in the killing of Head Constable Ashiq Hussain Qureshi on July 22 in Anantnag market while he was deployed on Yatra duty.

The posters carry the photograph of the terrorist that was taken from CCTV grabs in the area when the terrorist was running away after killing the policeman.

Since the eruption of terrorist violence in 1989, so far 1,614 Jammu and Kashmir Police personnel have laid down their lives in the line of duty fighting terrorism.

This toll includes regular officers, lower-ranked constables, and several hundred Special Police Officers (SPOs).

Martyred policemen include ranks from low-rank constables and selection-grade constables to Inspectors, Deputy SPs, Superintendents, and DIG-level officers.

Around 515 SPOs have laid down their lives in the service of the nation while fighting terrorism.

Terrorists also killed two non-local brick kiln labourers in Kellam village of Kulgam district on July 31.

A hunt is also on to trace the killers of the two non-locals identified as Deepak and Bopinder, both of whom belonged to Chhattisgarh.

While Deepak died in the government medical college hospital in Anantnag on the same day the terrorist shot him, Bopinder was shifted in critical condition to the super speciality Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) in Srinagar.

Despite the best efforts of the doctors, Bopinder passed away in SKIMS Srinagar on August 1.

The killings of non-locals were widely condemned by religious, political and social groups across the board.

J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah sanctioned ex gratia cash relief of Rs 15 lakh each for the next of kin of the two non-locals killed by the terrorists.

–IANS

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Kolkata, Aug 5 (IANS) A single-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday extended the interim stay on the demolition of the party office of Trinamool Congress General Secretary and the party’s Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha member, Abhishek Banerjee, at Amtala in West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district till August 21.

The tenure of the previous interim stay on the demolition of the said office was till August 6 and after a hearing in the matter on Wednesday, the single-judge bench of Justice Suvra Ghosh extended the stay till August 21.

The next date of hearing in the matter is scheduled on August 18.

The demolition of the Amtala office of Abhishek Banerjee, the nephew of former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, began last month on charges of construction without valid plans and documents.

A part of the office was also demolished using three bulldozers.

However, the Diamond Harbour MP approached the Calcutta High Court challenging the demolition.

After a couple of hearings in the matter at the Calcutta High Court, an interim stay was put on the demolition first till August 6, which has now been extended till August 21.

The South 24 Parganas district administration earlier summoned Abhishek Banerjee after several complaints were raised against his party office at Amtala for which a notice was issued.

The notice mentioned that the land on which the Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha MP’s office was built was purchased in the name of a corporate entity — Leaps and Bounds Private Limited, which is linked to the Banerjee family.

On not receiving any response to two consecutive notices, the district administration finally started demolition of the said office last month.

Challenging this decision of the administration, a case was filed in the High Court on behalf of the said corporate entity.

As the matter came up for hearing before Justice Ghosh’s bench on Wednesday, the state’s Advocate General, Surajit Nath Mitra, sought some time from the court for presenting a detailed argument in the matter.

Thereafter, Justice Ghosh fixed August 18 as the next date of hearing and also extended the interim stay on the demolition till August 21.

–IANS

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Chandigarh, Aug 5 (IANS) The Bhagwant Mann Cabinet on Wednesday gave consent to the Punjab Protection of Trees Bill of 2026 to maintain green cover for ensuring ecological balance, prevent pollution of the environment, provide an institutional mechanism to compensate for the environmental loss caused by the felling of trees and conserve the soil.

Punjab is an agrarian state with about 83 per cent of its area under agriculture.

The total area under forest and tree cover is about 5.92 per cent, and the state government has set a target to enhance it to 7.5 per cent by 2030.

The Cabinet also gave approval to further amend the Punjab Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill of 2026 to promote voluntary compliance, reduce litigation, and streamline Goods and Services Tax (GST) procedures, thereby benefiting trade and industry across the state.

The amendment will allow exclusion of post-sale discounts from the value of supply through issuance of a credit note without the requirement of a prior agreement.

Further, it will allow issuance of credit notes for post-sale discounts for any commercial reason, thereby simplifying trade discount adjustments and reducing compliance burden.

Likewise, it also aims to extend the benefit of 90 per cent provisional refund of ITC in cases of inverted duty structure and allow refund of IGST paid on exports of goods even where the refund amount is below Rs 1,000, thereby improving liquidity and facilitating exports.

The Cabinet also gave concurrence to amend the Punjab Panchayati Raj Act of 1994 to streamline the functioning of the Rural Development Department and merge the cadres of Panchayat Secretaries and Gram Sewaks to create a new cadre of Panchayat Development Secretary.

The Panchayat Secretaries, upon submission of a self-declaration, will be placed at the tail of the existing seniority list of Gram Sewaks. The existing Panchayat Secretaries who fail to submit the required self-declaration within one month from the date of issue of the notification will continue to remain in the cadre of Panchayat Secretaries, which has been declared as a dying cadre.

–IANS

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New Delhi, Aug 5 (IANS) The Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought the response of the Union government on a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking the implementation of an automatic refund mechanism for excess Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) in cases where individuals are not otherwise required to file income tax returns.

A division bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia issued notice to the Union of India, the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, and the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), directing them to file their response.

The matter has been listed for further hearing on November 6.

The PIL, filed by petitioner-in-person Aakash Goel, contended that nearly two crore individuals, primarily senior citizens and low-income earners whose income falls below the taxable threshold, continue to face hardship in recovering excess TDS because the law mandates filing an Income Tax Return (ITR) before any refund can be processed.

The petition argued that the existing framework creates a “constitutional paradox”, claiming that while the government has developed advanced technological systems to collect taxes, it has failed to establish an equally efficient mechanism for returning excess tax deducted from persons with no tax liability.

It submitted that the mandatory ITR filing requirement under Section 433 of the Income Tax Act, 2025, effectively acts as a “bureaucratic toll-gate”, making it economically irrational for many individuals to seek refunds, particularly where the amount involved is small.

According to the plea, the financial and digital costs of filing returns often exceed the refund amount itself, resulting in a “procedural forfeiture” that disproportionately affects blue-collar workers, senior citizens and other low-income individuals.

The PIL further claimed that while the Income Tax Department efficiently uses technology for compliance measures, including identifying potential non-filers through the Non-Filer Monitoring System (NMS), it has not adopted the same technological capabilities to automatically refund excess TDS to individuals whose tax records already establish that they have no tax liability.

Seeking judicial intervention, the petitioner has prayed for directions to the Union government and the CBDT to implement an automatic or suo motu refund mechanism for non-filing individuals and to read down the provision mandating ITR filing for claiming such refunds.

The plea also relied on official data to contend that around 2.35 crore individuals with TDS credits did not file returns despite having refundable amounts and argued that requiring them to undergo a digital compliance process defeats the government’s stated objective of “Ease of Living”.

Earlier, in January 2025, the Supreme Court had declined to entertain a PIL seeking the complete scrapping of the TDS system under the Income Tax Act.

A Bench headed by the then Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna had dismissed the petition while granting liberty to the petitioner to approach the appropriate High Court. The petition had challenged the TDS regime as arbitrary and unconstitutional, alleging that it unfairly shifted the sovereign responsibility of tax collection to private citizens and imposed disproportionate compliance burdens through technical procedures, penalties, and prosecution for even inadvertent errors.

–IANS

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Bengaluru, Aug 5 (IANS) Karnataka Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar on Wednesday said the state government is ready to extend all necessary support for training priests serving in rural temples and urged priest associations and mutts to take the lead in improving their skills and preserving temple traditions.

Addressing a state-level convention of priests, agamikas and employees of Muzrai temples here, the Chief Minister called for a structured training programme for those performing rituals in village temples across the state.

He urged priest associations and mutts to jointly deliberate on the initiative and impart proper religious practices and traditions to priests serving in nearly 34,000 rural temples.

“I request the priests’ associations and mutts to come together and discuss this. There are nearly 34,000 temples in villages where priests perform daily rituals. You should impart proper religious traditions and practices to them. Organise a three-month training programme for these priests, and the government will provide all the necessary support required for it,” Shivakumar said.

Questioning whether knowledge should remain confined to a few individuals, the Chief Minister encouraged experienced priests to share their expertise with others.

“Knowledge is not the private property of any individual or family. You can share your knowledge with others. By doing so, you will strengthen the traditions and values associated with temple worship,” he said.

Shivakumar also highlighted his own contribution to temple development, stating that nearly 300 temples had either been constructed or renovated in his Assembly constituency.

“In my constituency alone, we have built or renovated around 300 temples. Those who pray with devotion attain peace of mind. During former Chief Minister S. Bangarappa’s tenure, the Aradhana scheme was introduced to promote the development of small temples. That initiative played an important role in supporting places of worship,” he said.

The Chief Minister reiterated that the government remains committed to preserving temple traditions while extending institutional support to priests and religious institutions across Karnataka.

Shivakumar appealed to temple priests to support the Congress government, saying it had fulfilled its promises and implemented welfare measures unmatched by previous administrations.

“Our government has done what it promised. Just as you protect your homes and temples, protect your government,” he said, urging priests to convey the government’s achievements to devotees and help bring it back to power.

The Chief Minister asserted that religion could not be monopolised by any political party and questioned claims that only certain groups were protectors of Hinduism. “Are Ramalinga Reddy, Siddaramaiah, Mallikarjun Kharge and I not Hindus?” he asked.

He announced that CCTV cameras would be installed near hundis and at counting centres in major temples to ensure transparency in handling temple offerings.

Responding to a demand that Water Resources Minister Ramalinga Reddy be given the Muzrai portfolio, Shivakumar said he was open to discussing the proposal.

Highlighting the government’s welfare initiatives, he said the Congress had fulfilled all five guarantee promises, including Gruha Jyothi, Gruha Lakshmi, Shakti and Anna Bhagya, besides providing free electricity to farmers. He also said the government was working to create employment opportunities through a private employment exchange system.

Shivakumar also took a swipe at the BJP over its claims of being the protector of Hinduism, saying no political party had a monopoly over religion.

“Some parties behave as if they have taken religion on contract. They claim that God and religion belong only to them. Are Ramalinga Reddy, Siddaramaiah, Mallikarjun Kharge and I not Hindus?” he asked.

He further questioned whether those claiming to defend religion had improved the lives of temple priests and devotees. Referring to the Ram Mandir, Shivakumar said people across the country had contributed bricks and donations for its construction but questioned what had happened to those contributions.

“Everyone donated bricks and money for the Ram Temple. What happened to all that? Has its sanctity not been questioned now?” he said.

He added that the state government was introducing CCTV cameras near hundis and at places where temple offerings are counted in major temples to ensure transparency and prevent allegations regarding the handling of temple funds.

–IANS

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