bengaluru l saturday l august 09, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 20 l late city EDITION SC will examine sedition law’s constitutional validity A 3-judge bench led by Chief Justice B R Gavai issued notice to the Centre on a PIL against the validity of Section 152 (sedition) of BNS ‘rebranded version’ of sedition law pil says law is liable to be struck down Section 152 of BNS deals with the ‘act endangering sovereignty, unity and integrity of India’. A PIL filed by retired Major General S G Vombatkere, an Army veteran, called Section 152 a “rebranded version” of the sedition law, previously kept in abeyance by SC in July 2022 pending legislative review. Despite this, the new legislation reinstates sedition under a new label ■ ■ The plea said the BNS provision was violative of Articles 14 (right to equality), 19(1)(a) (freedom of speech and expression) and 21 (right to life) of the Constitution; and was liable to be struck down Section 152 criminalises acts done ‘purposely or knowingly’, yet neither term is defined in the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita, the plea said Sec 124A challenge to this law has also been tagged along with sec 152 CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI high-stakes dialogue Had a very good and detailed conversation with my friend President Putin... We discussed Ukraine and reviewed our bilateral ties During our call, we exchanged opinions on key issues of the bilateral agenda, including trade, economic and investment cooperation Modi, Putin call amid tariff pain, Ukraine summit Russian leader holds consultations ahead of his talks with Trump on ending Ukraine war President Lula da Silva—another US trading partner hit with Prime Minister Narendra a 50% tariff—and amid reports Modi and Russian President of an accelerating Trump-Putin Vladimir Putin held a high- summit, possibly as early as stakes phone conversation on next week. Friday, reaffirming their comAdding to the geopolitical mitment to deepen India-Rus- complexity, Kremlin aide Yuri sia ties amid intensifying US Ushakov confirmed Thursday pressure over New Delhi’s en- that a venue had been selected ergy dealings with Moscow. for the proposed Trump-Putin The call comes on meeting. While the ofthe heels of a major ficial location remains escalation by the US, undisclosed, Putin sugwhere President Dongested that the United ald Trump signed an Arab Emirates would executive order slapbe a “suitable” host. ping a steep 50% tariff In a further twist, on Indian imports of Ushakov revealed disNo trade Russian oil, seen widecussions of a possible talks ly as a direct warning three-way summit into India over its convolving Trump, Putin, US President tinued energy partnerand Ukrainian PresiTrump ruled ship with Russia. dent Volodymyr Zelenout any trade “Had a very good talks with India skyy The Kremlin has . and detailed conversayet to comment offiuntil the tariff tion with my friend cially on that possibilissue is P re s i d e n t P u t i n , ” ity For his part, Putin . resolved. “No, Modi posted on social expressed cautious not until we media platform X. “We get it resolved,” openness to meeting reviewed progress in Zelenskyy, but added Trump said in our bilateral agenda that “certain condithe Oval Office and reaffirmed our tions should be creaton Thursday commitment to fured,” stressing that the ther deepen the Indiacurrent situation is Russia Special and Privileged “far” from ideal. For his part, Strategic Partnership.” Trump said he did not consider The two leaders also dis- a Putin-Zelenskyy meeting a cussed the ongoing Ukraine prerequisite for his own sumconflict. According to an offi- mit with the Russian leader. cial Indian readout, Putin Amid the shifting global dybriefed Modi on “the latest de- namics, New Delhi’s balancing v e l o p m e n t s c o n c e r n i n g act is increasingly under the Ukraine,” while Modi reiterat- spotlight. On the multilateral ed India’s consistent call for “a front, China officially welpeaceful resolution of the con- comed Modi’s participation in flict.” The diplomatic timing is the Shanghai Cooperation Ornotable. The call comes a day ganization (SCO) Summit in after Modi spoke with Brazilian Tianjin later this month. J aya n t h J a c o b @ New Delhi Will prove voter theft if 10-year data given: Rahul’s dare to poll panel SC verdict in Nath case rejected plea for digital list of voters, says ECI MUK E SH RANJAN @ New Delhi LoP in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi shares chocolates with CM Siddaramaiah and DCM DK Shivakumar at the ‘voter theft’ rally in Bengaluru on Friday | nagaraja gadekal D eva ra j B H i r e h a l l i Rahul’s five @ Bengaluru Continuing his tirade against the Election Commission of India (ECI) and BJP government at the Centre, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said here on Friday that if EC provides him ten years of data -the electronic voters’ list and videography of the polling stations, he can prove theft of voters in several Lok Sabha seats across the country . Addressing a big rally organised by Congress here, he hit back at EC saying, “The Election Commission asks me for an affidavit. They say I have to take an oath. I have taken an oath on the Constitution in Parliament. Today, when the people of the country are asking questions about data, the ECI has shut down its website in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra. The ECI knows that if the public starts asking them questions, their entire structure will collapse.” He said, “If EC gives us electronic data, we will prove that Narendra Modi became Prime Minister by stealing votes. Modi is the PM because of a margin of just 25 seats. We have proven that Bengaluru Central LS seat was stolen. Why is ECI not giving a voter list in a digital machine readable format to the people of India? Why is ECI destroying video evidence? Why is ECI committing massive fraud in the voters’ list? Why is ECI threatening opposition instead of answering our questions? Why is ECI behaving like an agent of the BJP? BJP won 25 seats with margins of less than 35,000 votes. If they (ECI) don’t give this data, it will mean they are helping BJP in vote theft.” He said, “It took us six months to find out the truth of one assembly segment -- Mahadevapura in Bengaluru Central LS seat. If EC doesn’t give us data, we can do the same thing in other seats as well. We do have paper copies. The EC cannot hide the truth, and it cannot hide itself. One day it , will have to face the Opposition. Every election officer should understand that. It’s a criminal act against people.” After the rally, Congress leaders, including Rahul, were scheduled to present a memorandum to the ECI office in Bengaluru.  P4 express read SIT searches new location in Dharmasthala case BJP MPs booked for forced entry into sanctum mangaluru: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the Dharmasthala mass burial case searched a new location in Boliyar on Friday, based on information from the complainant-witness | P4 Ranchi: The Jharkhand Police registered an FIR against BJP MPs Nishikant Dubey and Manoj Tiwari for ‘forcibly’ entering the sanctum of the Baba Baidyanath Temple in Deoghar on August 2 and hurting religious sentiments. Vishnuvardhan ‘memorial’ razed overnight; fans stage protest E x p r e s s Ne w s Se r v i c e @ Bengaluru HUNDREDS of fans of the late Kannada superstar Dr Vishnuvardhan gathered outside Abhiman Studio near Kengeri on Friday, after a structure at the place where he was cremated was demolished overnight. The agitated fans staged a protest outside the studio and expressed their anger against the state gover nment and the Kannada Film Chamber of Commerce for neglecting the place. Vishnuvardhan’s last rites were performed on the premises of Abhiman Studio when he passed away on December 30, 2009. Fans had long been demanding a permanent memorial for the actor and had urged the authorities to resolve the property dispute. The studio belonged to the family of veteran Kannada actor Balakrishna.  P5 rebuilding lives Rescue workers engage in the reconstruction of a bridge, which was washed away in the recent flash floods, on the Gangotri National Highway near Gangani, in Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand, on Friday | pti Rejecting Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi’s allegations of voter list manipulation, the ECI on Friday pointed out that the Congress-led Karnataka government itself is using the same electoral rolls for its caste census exercise. It dared him to sign a formal declaration for his claims or apologise to the nation. Regardless of the format of the complaint, it’s the EC’s job to purify the rolls whenever discrepancies are pointed out. Sources in the ECI said that the Karnataka cabinet approved the use of electoral rolls as the base for conducting a caste survey “ the . At same time LoP (Rahul Gandhi) was dropping the ‘atom bomb’ on electoral rolls, the Congress government was vouching for their authenticity by basing their most important policy of caste census on them,” a source said. ECI officials argued that Rahul was repeating a tired script. “In 2018, they (then MP Congress chief Kamal Nath), tried to mislead SC by producing documents from a private website to demonstrate there are errors in the electoral rolls, saying same face was shown for 36 voters,” an official said. “But, the defects had already been rectified four months before Nath made the allegations and a copy of revised rolls was supplied to the party Yet, Nath . sought the poll rolls in a searchable pdf format. The SC refused to entertain it, agreeing with the EC’s position that it would compromise voter privacy .” “The Nath judgment gives a settled position on machine readable document. Raising the same issues again shows that Rahul has no respect for the SC,” the official charged. @ Bengaluru The Karnataka State Education Policy (SEP) Commission submitted its long-awaited report to the state government on Friday Among its most signifi. cant recommendations is a twolanguage policy, Kannada or mother tongue along with English, for all schools, doing away with the Centre’s National Lan- guage Policy’s three-language formula. The commission has recommended to the government to make Kannada or mother tongue the medium of instruction up to Class 5 in all boards. Commission chairman Sukhadeo Thorat submitted the first of the six-volume report to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah here. A major structural change proposed is adoption of a 2+8+4 system — two years of pre-primary, eight years of primary, and four years of secondary education. The commission has proposed to extend the Right to Education (RTE) Act, currently applicable up to the age of 14, to 18 (4–18). The report calls for making s u c h i t r a k a lya n m o h a n t y @ New Delhi THE Supreme Court on Friday deleted its observations criticising Allahabad High Court judge Prashant Kumar for allowing criminal proceedings in a civil dispute case, clarifying that its “intention was not to embarrass or cast aspersions on him”. In its order on August 4, a bench of justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan had taken strong exception to Justice Kumar’s handling of a case for treating a civil dispute as a criminal case. The bench barred the judge from hearing criminal matters till his retirement, adding, “The Allahabad High Court chief justice shall make the judge sit in a division bench with a seasoned senior HC judge.” However, the SC’s caustic verdict ran into constitutional trouble as the HC CJ is the master of roster, not the the SC. While CJI Gavai was exploring ways to remedy the situation, 13 judges of the Allahabad High Court urged their Chief Justice Arun Bhansali to convene a full court meeting and refuse compliance with the SC order. With the situation snowballing, the CJI urged the Pardiwala bench to reconsider its fiat. The revised verdict read, “We fully acknowledge that the HC CJ is the master of the roster... (But) When matters raise institutional concerns affecting the rule of law, this court may be compelled to step in and take corrective steps.” Nirmala pulls I-T bill in Lok Sabha, set to table final version on Monday D IPAK MON D AL @ New Delhi What is changing FINANCE Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday withdrew the Income Tax Bill 2025, which was introduced in the Lok Sabha on February 13 to replace the Income Tax Act 1961. A fresh version of the bill, incorporating most of the recommendations of the Select Committee chaired by BJP member Baijayant Panda, will be tabled in the House on Monday . Sources said the earlier draft was withdrawn to avoid confusion due to multiple versions of the legislation and to present a consolidated text with all changes included. The finance ministry said the government has accepted almost all recommendations of the Select Committee. Suggestions were also received from other sources regarding finetuning the language to convey the correct legislative meaning. The 31-member Select Committee, which submitted its report Earlier draft bill had some errors leading to confusion. The new version will simplify clauses SEP panel gives report to CM, favours 2-language policy E x p r e s s Ne w s Se r v i c e SC deletes its observations against sitting HC judge after CJI’s intervention secondary education universal and building residential schools for migrant children. The commission has stressed the need to bring government schools on par with Kendriya Vidyalayas. To ensure this, it has recommended to the government to end hiring of contract and guest teachers and put in place a separate regulatory authority for private schools.  CONTINUED ON P3 1 2 Revised bill will allow income tax refund claims even if the returns are filed late; earlier provision had tied refunds to ITR being filed within ‘due date’ and this denied refunds to those who missed the deadline for filing ITRs due to genuine reasons 3 Draft bill had inadvertently deleted the words “no deduction”, resulting in removing the concept of nil TDS certificates. The revised bill reinstates that 4 Anonymous donations made to religious-cum-charitable trusts will be exempt from tax; however, trusts that run hospitals and educational institutions will be subject to tax to the Lok Sabha last month, proposed over 30 major amendments to the bill. These include changes in the definitions of ‘capital asset’, ‘infrastructure capital company’, ‘MSME’, clarifications on property-related deductions, and reinforcement of the ‘actual payment’ rule for claiming business expenses. One significant proposal is the reinstatement of a provision allowing the tax department to issue nil withholding tax certificates for specific payments — a clause dropped in the February draft, which only permitted low TDS certificates. The panel also recommended permitting refund claims even if the returns are filed late. For charitable and not-forprofit entities, the panel suggested replacing ‘receipts’ with ‘income’ for tax purposes, restoring the concept of ‘deemed application’, and providing clearer definitions. In a relief to corporates, the panel said the deduction for inter-corporate dividends in multi-tiered structures should also apply to firms opting for the 22% tax rate, as is the case under current law. Security guard murders 14-yr-old nephew over online game addiction E x p r e s s Ne w s Se r v i c e @ Bengaluru A man killed his 14-year-old nephew who was addicted to online games and frequently pestered him for money Four days after the . crime, the man surrendered before the Soladevanahalli police on Thursday who later recovered the decomposed body , . The accused has been identified as Nagaprasad (50), a security guard. The deceased, Amogha Keerthi (14), was a Class 7 student of a private school. Amogha had been living with his uncle for the past eight months in Kumbarahalli, Vinayaka Layout. His mother, Shilpa, was separated from her husband before Amogha’s birth and was living alone for the last eight months.  CONTINUED ON P3