The Evening Wrap: Pleas against freebies should be listed before three-judge Bench, says SC

A Division Bench of the Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice of India U.U. Lalit, on November 1, 2022 said petitions seeking a declaration that pre-poll promises of “irrational” freebies by political parties constitute a corrupt practice under the election law should be posted before a three-judge Bench “at the earliest”. The focus of the litigation is a 2013 judgment of the court which had held that such assurances of freebies to entice voters do not fall within the ambit of Section 123 (corrupt practices)of the Representation of People Act. The S. Subramaniam Balaji judgment, delivered by a two-judge Bench, had observed that “although the law is obvious that the promises in the election manifesto cannot be construed as ‘corrupt practice’ under Section 123 of RP Act, the reality cannot be ruled out that distribution of freebies of any kind, undoubtedly, influences all people”. Petitioner-advocate Ashwini Upadhyay submitted that the three-judge Bench, when the matter comes up before it, should focus on the review of the 2013 verdict. Senior advocate P. Wilson, for the DMK party, said the petition was politically motivated and ought to be dismissed. In August, the court had referred the case to a three-judge Bench to consider whether an “enforceable” order could be passed to stop political parties in power from promising and distributing these freebies, completely divorced from actual welfare schemes, using public money in order to merely “capture vote banks”. “Freebies may create a situation wherein the State government cannot provide basic amenities due to lack of funds and the State is pushed towards imminent bankruptcy,” the court observed. The court said the three-judge Bench should also deliberate if an expert body could be formed to independently study and make recommendations against the distribution of largesse at the cost of national economy and public welfare. GST revenues cross ₹1.51 lakh crore in October India’s gross GST revenues touched ₹1,51,718 crore in October, 16.6% higher than a year ago, marking the second highest monthly collections since the launch of the indirect tax regime. Revenues from domestic transactions, including imports of services increased 18% during the month, with the Finance Ministry stating that October marked the second highest collection from domestic transactions “next only to April 2022”. While the government didn’t share the overall revenue growth from import of goods for October, Integrated GST (IGST) collected on goods imports grew 13.02% over last October while GST Cess inflows on such imports rose 18.02%. “This is the ninth month and for eight months in a row now, that the monthly GST revenues have been more than the ₹ 1.4 lakh crore mark,” the Ministry said. During September 2022, whose transactions are reflected in October’s revenues, 8.3 crore e-way bills were generated, which the Ministry said “was significantly higher” than 7.7 crore bills generated a month earlier. There were significant variations among major States’ revenues during the month. While Haryana recorded a 37% uptick, followed by Karnataka (33%), Kerala (29%), West Bengal (26%) and Tamil Nadu (25%), revenues grew slower than the national average in Gujarat and Telangana (11%), Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan (10%) and Uttar Pradesh (16%). Six States clocked negative growth, year-on-year, including Chhatisgarh (-3%), Assam (-13%), Mizoram and Manipur (-23% each) and Bihar (-1%). The erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir clocked a sharp 34% drop in revenues, even as they jumped 74% in the Union Territory of Ladakh. “October 2022 reflects a combination of quarter-end flows relating to the transactions in the previous month, as well as the surge in GST e-way bills ahead of a robust festive season,” said ICRA chief economist Aditi Nayar. Abhishek Jain, partner (indirect tax) for KPMG in India, attributed the higher collections to festive spending and said collections could rise further through the festive season. Central GST (CGST) revenues for the month were ₹26,039 crore, while the State GST (SGST) kitty was ₹33,396 crore. IGST revenues were ₹81,778 crore, including ₹37,297 crore collected on import of goods and GST Cess collections were ₹10,505 crore, including ₹825 crore from goods imports. The highest GST collections in a month were recorded in April this year, at ₹1,67,540 crore. Grievance Appellate Committee panel to be in place by November 30: Rajeev Chandrasekhar The government will come out with proposed modalities and terms of references for setting up grievance appellate committees to address social media users’ complaints in the next 10-12 days, and expects the panel to be in place by November 30, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Tuesday. The minister also said that once the government comes out with the proposed framework for GAC (grievance appellate committees), it will be followed by meetings and discussions with stakeholders. The hardening of stance against the big tech companies comes at a time when discontent has been brewing over alleged arbitrary acts of platforms on flagged content, or intermediaries not responding fast enough to grievances, and even de-platforming users without following proper procedures. The tighter IT rules, notified last week, now pave the way for the setting up of government-appointed GACs which will settle issues that users may have against the way social media platforms initially addressed their complaints regarding content and other matters. “We will roll out the architecture, design and terms of reference of the GAC in the next 10-12 days and I will also assure you that nothing will be finalised or notified without consultation with both the consumers and the industry,” the minister of state for IT, Chandrasekhar, told PTI. The draft will be followed by meetings and discussions to ensure “everyone is clear and satisfied with the goals, objectives of the GAC and how it will function both in terms of consumers as a stakeholder, as well as industry and platforms as stakeholders.” “I see no reason why before November 30, we should not have a GAC in place,” the minister said. The new amendments to IT rules impose a legal obligation on social media companies to take all-out efforts to prevent barred content and misinformation, the government said on Saturday, making it clear that platforms such as Twitter and Facebook operating in India will have to abide by local laws and constitutional rights of Indian users. The new rules provide for setting up appellate committees which can overrule decisions of the big tech firms on takedown or blocking requests, where user grievance have remained unresolved despite being flagged. The panels will also function as a “traffic signpost” on the internet; where appellate disputes relate to the IT ministry, it will resolve those complaints. Parties are free to appeal against such decisions in the courts. When complaints relate to areas outside the purview of the IT ministry, GAC will direct the appeal to the concerned tribunals or administrative ministry. The compliance of rules and laws is not “pick and choose” or “cherry picking” option for platforms, Chandrasekhar said, cautioning that if and when rules are not followed, the ‘safe harbour protections’ that platforms enjoy fall away. “If platforms increasingly comply with obligations of content moderation as has been laid out, which addresses user harm, national security and misinformation...then there is no need for safe harbour to go. But it is a natural consequence of the rules that if the platforms do not comply with the obligations cast on them of making the internet a safe and trusted space, then there is no consequence or obligation on part of the government to provide them safe harbour,” he said. In other words, the safe harbour protection is “earned”, subject to platform doing its bit to keep internet safe and trusted by making sure that the content that is flagged as causing user harm is no longer hosted on it. Putin says power grid strikes were in response to Crimea drone attack President Vladimir Putin said Russian strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure and a decision to freeze participation in a Black Sea grain export programme were responses to a drone attack on Moscow’s fleet in Crimea that he blamed on Ukraine. Putin told a news conference on Monday that Ukrainian drones had used the same marine corridors that grain ships transited under the U.N.-brokered deal. Kyiv has not claimed responsibility for the attack and denies using the grain programme’s security corridor for military purposes. The United Nations said no grain ships were using the Black Sea route on Saturday when Russia said its vessels in Crimea were attacked. Meanwhile, on the 250th day of a war that has ground on since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Russian missiles rained down across the country. Explosions boomed out in Kyiv, sending black smoke into the sky. Russian forces shelled infrastructure in at least six Ukrainian regions on Monday, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in a statement on Facebook. “That’s not all we could have done,” Putin said at the televised news conference, indicating more action could follow. Ukrainian officials said energy infrastructure, including hydro-electric dams, was hit, knocking out power, heat and water supplies. Oleh Synehubov, the governor of the northeastern Kharkiv region, said on Telegram that about 140,000 residents were without power after the attacks, including about 50,000 residents of Kharkiv city, the second largest city in Ukraine. Ukraine’s military said it had shot down 44 of 50 Russian missiles. But the strikes left 80% of Kyiv without running water, authorities said. Ukrainian police said 13 people were injured in the latest attacks. For the past three weeks, Russia has attacked Ukrainian civil infrastructure using expensive long-range missiles and cheap Iranian-made “suicide drones” that fly at a target and detonate. Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said 18 targets, mostly energy infrastructure, were hit in missile and drone strikes on 10 Ukrainian regions on Monday. In Brief: Tata Steel veteran and its former MD Jamshed J. Irani passed away on October 31, 2022, at 10 p.m. at TMH, Jamshedpur, Tata Steel said in a statement. He was 86. He is survived by his wife Daisy Irani and his three children, Zubin, Niloufer and Tanaaz. Irani was associated with Tata Steel for 43 years. He retired from the board of Tata Steel in June 2011. He will be remembered as a visionary leader who led Tata Steel from the forefront during India’s economic liberalisation in the early 1990s and contributed to the growth and development of the steel industry in India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 1, 2022 said a “detailed and extensive” inquiry to identify all aspects relating to the Morbi bridge collapse tragedy is the need of the hour, as he chaired a high-level meeting in Morbi to review the situation. He asserted that key learnings from the inquiry must be implemented at the earliest, officials said. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. [logo] The Evening Wrap 01 NOVEMBER 2022 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [[Arrow]Open in browser]( [[Mail icon]More newsletters]( Pleas against election freebies should be listed before three-judge Bench at the earliest, says SC [A Division Bench of the Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice of India U.U. Lalit, on November 1, 2022]( said petitions seeking a declaration that pre-poll promises of “irrational” freebies by political parties constitute a corrupt practice under the election law should be posted before a three-judge Bench “at the earliest”. The focus of the litigation is a 2013 judgment of the court which had held that such assurances of freebies to entice voters do not fall within the ambit of Section 123 (corrupt practices)of the Representation of People Act. The S. Subramaniam Balaji judgment, delivered by a two-judge Bench, had observed that “although the law is obvious that the promises in the election manifesto cannot be construed as ‘corrupt practice’ under Section 123 of RP Act, the reality cannot be ruled out that distribution of freebies of any kind, undoubtedly, influences all people”. Petitioner-advocate Ashwini Upadhyay submitted that the three-judge Bench, when the matter comes up before it, should focus on the review of the 2013 verdict. Senior advocate P. Wilson, for the DMK party, said the petition was politically motivated and ought to be dismissed. In August, the court had referred the case to a three-judge Bench to consider whether an “enforceable” order could be passed to stop political parties in power from promising and distributing these freebies, completely divorced from actual welfare schemes, using public money in order to merely “capture vote banks”. “Freebies may create a situation wherein the State government cannot provide basic amenities due to lack of funds and the State is pushed towards imminent bankruptcy,” the court observed. The court said the three-judge Bench should also deliberate if an expert body could be formed to independently study and make recommendations against the distribution of largesse at the cost of national economy and public welfare. GST revenues cross ₹1.51 lakh crore in October [India’s gross GST revenues touched ₹1,51,718 crore in October, 16.6% higher than a year ago,]( marking the second highest monthly collections since the launch of the indirect tax regime. Revenues from domestic transactions, including imports of services increased 18% during the month, with the Finance Ministry stating that October marked the second highest collection from domestic transactions “next only to April 2022”. While the government didn’t share the overall revenue growth from import of goods for October, Integrated GST (IGST) collected on goods imports grew 13.02% over last October while GST Cess inflows on such imports rose 18.02%. “This is the ninth month and for eight months in a row now, that the monthly GST revenues have been more than the ₹ 1.4 lakh crore mark,” the Ministry said. During September 2022, whose transactions are reflected in October’s revenues, 8.3 crore e-way bills were generated, which the Ministry said “was significantly higher” than 7.7 crore bills generated a month earlier. There were significant variations among major States’ revenues during the month. While Haryana recorded a 37% uptick, followed by Karnataka (33%), Kerala (29%), West Bengal (26%) and Tamil Nadu (25%), revenues grew slower than the national average in Gujarat and Telangana (11%), Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan (10%) and Uttar Pradesh (16%). Six States clocked negative growth, year-on-year, including Chhatisgarh (-3%), Assam (-13%), Mizoram and Manipur (-23% each) and Bihar (-1%). The erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir clocked a sharp 34% drop in revenues, even as they jumped 74% in the Union Territory of Ladakh. “October 2022 reflects a combination of quarter-end flows relating to the transactions in the previous month, as well as the surge in GST e-way bills ahead of a robust festive season,” said ICRA chief economist Aditi Nayar. Abhishek Jain, partner (indirect tax) for KPMG in India, attributed the higher collections to festive spending and said collections could rise further through the festive season. Central GST (CGST) revenues for the month were ₹26,039 crore, while the State GST (SGST) kitty was ₹33,396 crore. IGST revenues were ₹81,778 crore, including ₹37,297 crore collected on import of goods and GST Cess collections were ₹10,505 crore, including ₹825 crore from goods imports. The highest GST collections in a month were recorded in April this year, at ₹1,67,540 crore. Grievance Appellate Committee panel to be in place by November 30: Rajeev Chandrasekhar [The government will come out with proposed modalities and terms of references for setting up grievance appellate]( committees to address social media users’ complaints in the next 10-12 days, and expects the panel to be in place by November 30, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Tuesday. The minister also said that once the government comes out with the proposed framework for GAC (grievance appellate committees), it will be followed by meetings and discussions with stakeholders. [Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar. ] The hardening of stance against the big tech companies comes at a time when discontent has been brewing over alleged arbitrary acts of platforms on flagged content, or intermediaries not responding fast enough to grievances, and even de-platforming users without following proper procedures. The tighter IT rules, notified last week, now pave the way for the setting up of government-appointed GACs which will settle issues that users may have against the way social media platforms initially addressed their complaints regarding content and other matters. “We will roll out the architecture, design and terms of reference of the GAC in the next 10-12 days and I will also assure you that nothing will be finalised or notified without consultation with both the consumers and the industry,” the minister of state for IT, Chandrasekhar, told PTI. The draft will be followed by meetings and discussions to ensure “everyone is clear and satisfied with the goals, objectives of the GAC and how it will function both in terms of consumers as a stakeholder, as well as industry and platforms as stakeholders.” “I see no reason why before November 30, we should not have a GAC in place,” the minister said. The new amendments to IT rules impose a legal obligation on social media companies to take all-out efforts to prevent barred content and misinformation, the government said on Saturday, making it clear that platforms such as Twitter and Facebook operating in India will have to abide by local laws and constitutional rights of Indian users. The new rules provide for setting up appellate committees which can overrule decisions of the big tech firms on takedown or blocking requests, where user grievance have remained unresolved despite being flagged. The panels will also function as a “traffic signpost” on the internet; where appellate disputes relate to the IT ministry, it will resolve those complaints. Parties are free to appeal against such decisions in the courts. When complaints relate to areas outside the purview of the IT ministry, GAC will direct the appeal to the concerned tribunals or administrative ministry. The compliance of rules and laws is not “pick and choose” or “cherry picking” option for platforms, Chandrasekhar said, cautioning that if and when rules are not followed, the ‘safe harbour protections’ that platforms enjoy fall away. “If platforms increasingly comply with obligations of content moderation as has been laid out, which addresses user harm, national security and misinformation...then there is no need for safe harbour to go. But it is a natural consequence of the rules that if the platforms do not comply with the obligations cast on them of making the internet a safe and trusted space, then there is no consequence or obligation on part of the government to provide them safe harbour,” he said. In other words, the safe harbour protection is “earned”, subject to platform doing its bit to keep internet safe and trusted by making sure that the content that is flagged as causing user harm is no longer hosted on it. Putin says power grid strikes were in response to Crimea drone attack [President Vladimir Putin said Russian strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure]( and a decision to freeze participation in a Black Sea grain export programme were responses to a drone attack on Moscow’s fleet in Crimea that he blamed on Ukraine. Putin told a news conference on Monday that Ukrainian drones had used the same marine corridors that grain ships transited under the U.N.-brokered deal. Kyiv has not claimed responsibility for the attack and denies using the grain programme’s security corridor for military purposes. The United Nations said no grain ships were using the Black Sea route on Saturday when Russia said its vessels in Crimea were attacked. Meanwhile, on the 250th day of a war that has ground on since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Russian missiles rained down across the country. Explosions boomed out in Kyiv, sending black smoke into the sky. Russian forces shelled infrastructure in at least six Ukrainian regions on Monday, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in a statement on Facebook. “That’s not all we could have done,” Putin said at the televised news conference, indicating more action could follow. Ukrainian officials said energy infrastructure, including hydro-electric dams, was hit, knocking out power, heat and water supplies. Oleh Synehubov, the governor of the northeastern Kharkiv region, said on Telegram that about 140,000 residents were without power after the attacks, including about 50,000 residents of Kharkiv city, the second largest city in Ukraine. Ukraine’s military said it had shot down 44 of 50 Russian missiles. But the strikes left 80% of Kyiv without running water, authorities said. Ukrainian police said 13 people were injured in the latest attacks. For the past three weeks, Russia has attacked Ukrainian civil infrastructure using expensive long-range missiles and cheap Iranian-made “suicide drones” that fly at a target and detonate. Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said 18 targets, mostly energy infrastructure, were hit in missile and drone strikes on 10 Ukrainian regions on Monday. In Brief: [Tata Steel veteran and its former MD Jamshed J. Irani]( passed away on October 31, 2022, at 10 p.m. at TMH, Jamshedpur, Tata Steel said in a statement. He was 86. He is survived by his wife Daisy Irani and his three children, Zubin, Niloufer and Tanaaz. Irani was associated with Tata Steel for 43 years. He retired from the board of Tata Steel in June 2011. He will be remembered as a visionary leader who led Tata Steel from the forefront during India’s economic liberalisation in the early 1990s and contributed to the growth and development of the steel industry in India. [Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Gujarat Home Minister Harsh Sanghvi inspecting rescue works at the cable suspension bridge collapsed in Morbi, Gujarat on November 1, 2022. ] [Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 1, 2022 said a “detailed and extensive” inquiry]( to identify all aspects relating to the Morbi bridge collapse tragedy is the need of the hour, as he chaired a high-level meeting in Morbi to review the situation. He asserted that key learnings from the inquiry must be implemented at the earliest, officials said. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow.  Today's Top Picks [[Watch | Data Point: Deepavali day pollution: How cities fared in 2022] Watch | Data Point: Deepavali day pollution: How cities fared in 2022]( [[‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ review: A gut-wrenching reminder of the dogs of war] ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ review: A gut-wrenching reminder of the dogs of war]( [[Watch | Chennai rains: Scenes from across the city] Watch | Chennai rains: Scenes from across the city]( [[Economic crisis | Drug shortages persist in Sri Lanka] Economic crisis | Drug shortages persist in Sri Lanka]( Copyright @ 2022, THG PUBLISHING PVT LTD. If you are facing any trouble in viewing this newsletter, please [try here]( If you do not wish to receive such emails [go here](