kozhikode l tuesday l march 09, 2021 l `7.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION Centre plans personal income tax reforms New regime tax-inefficient, say experts The finance ministry wants to reduce the confusion among taxpayers due to the dual tax system introduced in the Budget 50% Simplified system likely by next year In the Budget for 2021-22, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had proposed a new tax regime with lower rates for those willing to forego all exemptions. Taxpayers who wanted to enjoy exemptions were given the option to continue with the old structure. However, according to tax experts, taxpayers would end up paying more tax under the new system ■ ■ The finance ministry will analyse this year’s tax filing data to figure out what structure taxpayers in different categories prefer. “Only after analysing, will we go for an overhaul,” said an official Sources said the Department of Revenue is likely to come up with a new, simplified tax structure in the next financial year | P10 70 NO. of deductions and exemptions not allowed in the new tax regime CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ WARANGAL ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI The legal issues framed by the court for consideration Whether Indira Sawhney case verdict needs to be referred to larger bench for relook? Whether the Maharashtra reservation law is covered by exceptional circumstances as was contemplated in Indra Sawhney case? Whether the 102nd Amendment deprives state legislatures the power to enact a legislation determining the socially and economically backward classes? Whether states’ power to legislate in relation to any backward class under Articles 15(4) and 16(4) is abridged by Article 342(A) read with Article 366(26c)? Whether Article 342A abrogates states power to legislate in respect of “any backward class of citizens” and affects the federal policy structure? quota cap Anger in CPM as leaders denied seats, allies pleased Communalism could be up personified: Pinarayi on Shah for review A N I L S   @ T’Puram Constitution bench seeks views of all states on reservation and their position on Article 342A E xpress N ews S ervice @ New Delhi Almost 30 years after it applied a 50% cap on reservation, the Supreme Court on Monday sought responses from all states on whether the ruling needs to be revisited. The ceiling was imposed by a nine-judge Constitution Bench in the Indira Sahwney case in 1992, also called the Mandal verdict. States were also asked to respond to a 2018 Constitution (102nd Amendment) Act, which gave constitutional recognition to National Commission for Backward Classes. Article 342A was introduced via the amendment, through which the competence of states to make laws on reservation for backward classes was taken away . “In view of the question of seminal importance on Article 342A, states have to be given opportunity to make their submissions,” a fivejudge bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan said. States have been asked to make submissions on whether they considered Article 342A ag ainst the federal structure of the Constitution. Hearing a petition challenging a 2018 Maharashtra law to provide reservation to Marathas, the bench said it will now consider the law in light of larger questions of law. It has scheduled the hearing for March 15. The Maharashtra State Reservation for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes Act, 2018, provided for a 16% reservation to Maratha community . In 2019, the Bombay High Court upheld the law, but reduced the reservation to 12% for admission to educational institutions and 13% for employment. The order was challenged in the Supreme Court, saying it violated the 50% reservation cap. express read Rape & murder: Death for migrant worker Kochi: A migrant worker from Assam on Monday was sentenced to death by the North Paravoor Additional District and Sessions Court for raping and murdering a 60-year-old homemaker at Puthenvelikkara in 2018. Parimal Sahu, 28, a resident of Nagaon district in Assam, was found guilty of trespassing into the house, assaulting and raping, and murdering the woman and destroying evidence. The court slapped a fine of H2,20,000 on him. The amount will be paid in compensation to the victim’s son. ‘iPhone calls were to Bineesh contacts’ BJP axe set to fall on U’khand CM? Kochi: The customs has identified the persons to whom the calls were made from the ‘controversial’ iPhone using a SIM card taken in the name of former CPM state secy Kodiyeri Balakrishnan’s wife. It was found that only the SIM taken in Vinodini‘s name was used in the phone and it was not used after the arrest of her son Bineesh Kodiyeri in the Bengaluru drug case. Customs found that most calls were made to those who had deals with Bineesh. New Delhi/ Dehradun: Taking a grim view of the poll prospects in Uttarakhand next year, the BJP is exploring leadership change in the hill state, while incumbent CM Trivendra Singh Rawat is camped in Delhi trying to somehow avert his ouster. The BJP is likely to name Rawat’s successor after calling a meeting of all legislators in Dehradun. Home minister Amit Shah is learnt to be acting on a report given by party vice-president Raman Singh. AS the CPM enters the campaign mode harbouring hopes of a second straight term in office, anger is boiling over regarding candidate selection and seat-sharing. On a day when the CPM secretariat finalised candidates, the state witnessed open protests in Ponnani and Kuttiyadi in addition to strong resentment within a section of supporters over exclusion of leaders with proven mass appeal.  On one side, there have been protests and poster campaigns in Alappuzha against the exclusion of G Sudhakaran and Thomas Isaac. On the other hand, allotting safe seats like Ranni and Kuttiyadi to KC(M) Jose K Mani faction has not gone down well with the cadre. In some places, workers are unhappy with ‘parachuting’ candidates without mass appeal. Curiously, the protests in Ponnani are not for Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan. Workers feel the party has named P Nandakumar without taking them into confidence as they want district leader T M Siddique to contest.  Similarly the ground level workers favour K P Kunjammad Kutty as CPM candidate in Kuttyadi while the party gave the seat to KC(M). The candidate selection in seats like Kottarakkara too has raised some The party finds it difficult to explain the exclusion of Kannur strongman P Jayarajan Kannur: Reacting sharply to the Union home minister’s tirade against him in Thiruvananthapuram, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said Amit Shah is communalism personified. Kickstarting ‘Padayorukkam’, the LDF election campaign, at Pinarayi here on Monday, the CM said Shah has humiliated the state and the Congress has not spoken anything against it. “His speech was quite unbecoming of his stature as the home minister. Though he has reached a big position, from the speech he had made, it seems that the man has not changed much from the person who had led the genocide in Gujarat in 2002,” he said. On Shah’s questions, the CM said he was not the one who was jailed for kidnapping. eyebrows. If resentment in the district leadership resulted in replacing A K Balan’s wife P K Jameela in Tarur, the protests in Alappuzha for fielding Sudhakaran and Isaac have not made any impact.  Observers consider the party’s so-called reformist approach suicidal, especially when it is eyeing a second term. Some feel the whole narrative could be a conspiracy to keep people like Isaac away. Even as the CPM tries to project the two-term norm, it finds it difficult to explain the exclusion of strongman P Jayarajan. ● More on P4 CPM supporters hold a protest rally in Kuttiady on Monday Protests & posters 1 Campaigns in Alappuzha against the exclusion of G Sudhakaran and Thomas Isaac Allotting safe seats like Ranni and Kuttiyadi to KC(M) Jose K Mani faction 2 Stir in Ponnani is not for P Sreeramakrishnan but against fielding P Nandakumar 3 Selection of senior leader K N Balagopal in Kottarakkara too raises eyebrows 4 5 Unusual glitch How a PSU bank sent Kotak Bank users into a tizzy E xpress news S ervice @ New Delhi An unusual technical glitch on Monday saw several Kotak Mahindra Bank account holders getting wrong debit messages, creating panic among customers, some of whom took to social media to report the issue. “Massive technical glitch in Kotak Bank, it seems. Rs. 81,972 debited from my account (I don’t even have that much in all my a/cs put together). Call centre exec says ppl have lost S6 lakh+ or S1 lakh +, so i shouldn’t worry. Wait for 24 hours, she said,” tweeted an irate customer of the private lender. When contacted, a Kotak Mahindra Bank spokesperson told TNIE that the issue has been resolved and that it was not widespread. With more users tweeting that they had also received such debit messages, the Mumbaibased private bank later issued a short statement saying the glitch was due to wrong settlement claims by a public sector lender for Kotak debit cards used on the PSU bank’s point of sales (POS) terminals. ` second show to resume in cinemas across state Following appeal from Kerala film bodies, the government revised the show timings to noon to midnight, after a detailed examination Poser to rape accused misreported, says CJI E xpress N ews S ervice @ New Delhi Expressing concern over misreporting of his remarks during a recent hearing in a rape case in which he had asked the accused if he would marry the victim, Chief Justice of India S A Bobde said the court has always had the highest respect for womanhood. “As an institution and as a bench in this court, we have always had the highest respect for the womanhood. We never asked the accused to marry the girl. We asked him ‘ re you going to A marry her’. There was complete misreporting,” the CJI said while pointing out that his questions to the lawyer for the accused were on the facts of that particular case alone. CJI Bobde’s remark came during the hearing of a different case filed by a 14-yearold who had sought permission to abort her 26-week-old foetus. She had alle gedly been raped by her cousin. The case was adjourned to Friday . Solicitor General Tushar Mehta concurred with the CJI. According to Section 165 of the Evidence Act, “The judge may , in order to discover or to obtain proper proof of relevant facts, ask any question he pleases, in any form, at any time, of any witness, or of the parties, about any fact relevant or irrelevant... and neither the parties nor their agents shall be entitled to make any objection to any such question or order...” ‘Up to Bar to protect reputation’ When an advocate sought a mechanism to deal with such situations, Chief Justice of India S A Bobde said, “Our reputation is always at the hands of the Bar.” Twenty20 president Sabu M Jacob talking to industrialist Kochouseph Chittilappilly and actor Sreenivasan during the announcement of the party’s candidates for assembly polls in Kochi on Monday | Albin Mathew Twenty20 gets Chittilappilly, Sreenivasan, Siddique on board E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Kochi BUOYED by its good showing in the local body elections in and around Kizhakkambalam, Twenty20 --- the non-political outfit floated by apparel-maker Kitex Group --- is gearing up to give rival political fronts a tough fight in the assembly polls and open its account. On Monday, Twenty20 announced candidates for five assembly seats and formed a seven-member advisory board headed by industrialist Kochouseph Chittilappilly. Actor Sreenivasan, director Siddique, Dr Shajan Kuriakose, Dr Vijayan, Lakshmi Menon and Anitha Indira Bhai are its members. It has named candidates for  Kunnathunad, Perumbavoor, Kothamangalam, Muvattupuzha and Vypeen seats. “We will contest in the remaining seats only if we find appropriate candidates. We are aiming to put up a good show in the assembly polls as we have a total membership of over 3 lakh in Er nakulam district. During the recent online membership drive, we got a membership of over 1.25 lakh. In 1,897 wards in the district, we have at least 50 members in each ward. We will be launching ward-level committees to take up various campaigns,” said Twenty20 president Sabu M Jacob.  ● More on P4