chennai 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 velopments concer ning Ukraine,” while Modi reiteratPrime Minister Narendra ed India’s consistent call for “a Modi and Russian President peaceful resolution of the conVladimir Putin held a high- flict.” The diplomatic timing is stakes phone conversation on notable. The call comes a day Friday, reaffirming their com- after Modi spoke with Brazilian mitment to deepen India-Rus- President Lula da Silva—anothsia ties amid intensifying US er US trading partner hit with pressure over New Delhi’s en- a 50% tariff—and amid reports ergy dealings with of an accelerating Moscow. Trump-Putin summit, The call comes on possibly as early as the heels of a major next week. escalation by the US, Adding to the geopowhere President Donlitical complexity, ald Trump signed an Kremlin aide Yuri Ushexecutive order slapakov confirmed ThursNo trade ping a steep 50% tariff day that a venue had talks on Indian imports of been selected for the Russian oil, seen wideproposed Trump-Putin US President ly as a direct warning meeting. While the ofTrump ruled to India over its conficial location remains out any trade tinued energy partner- talks with India undisclosed, Putin sugship with Russia. gested that the United until the tariff “Had a very good Arab Emirates would issue is and detailed conversabe a “suitable” host. resolved. “No, tion with my friend In a further twist, not until we P re s i d e n t P u t i n , ” get it resolved,” Ushakov revealed disModi posted on social cussions of a possible Trump said in media platform X. “We three-way summit inthe Oval Office reviewed progress in volving Trump, Putin, on Thursday our bilateral agenda and Ukrainian Presiand reaffir med our dent Volodymyr Zelencommitment to further deepen skyy. The Kremlin has yet to the India-Russia Special and comment officially on that P r i v i l e g e d S t r a t e g i c possibility . Partnership.” For his part, Putin expressed The two leaders also dis- cautious openness to meeting cussed the ongoing Ukraine Zelenskyy but added that “cer, conflict. According to an offi- tain conditions should be crecial Indian readout, Putin ated,” stressing that the current briefed Modi on “the latest de- situation is “far” from ideal. J ayan t h J ac o b @ New Delhi After CJI Gavai intervenes, SC deletes its order such i t ra ka lyan m o han 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. express read Centre nod for 4-laning of Marakkanam-Pondy NH Chennai: The central government has approved the four-laning of the highway stretch between Marakkanam and Puducherry (46 km) on East Coast Road at a cost of `2,157 crore | P2 Chennai-Tirupati drive to get quicker by 45 min Chennai: Travel time from Chennai to Tirupati may drop by 45 minutes, as the four-laning of the 18-km NH between Thiruninravur & Tiruvallur is set to be over by September | P2 Govt pulls I-T bill in LS, set to table final version on Monday pany’, ‘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. Bringing professionals under electronic payment norms, prescribing qualifications for valuers, and ensuring fairness in the application of General Anti-Avoidance Rules were also recommended. 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. DI PA K M O N D A L @ New Delhi 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 fine-tuning the language to convey the correct legislative meaning. The 31-member Select Committee, which submitted its report 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 com- state Edu Policy TN sticks to two languages, scraps Class 11 boards S u b ash i n i V i jayakumar @ Chennai Chief Minister MK Stalin on Friday released the State Education Policy-School Education underscoring the state’s commitment to twolanguage policy of Tamil and English as against the three-language policy stipulated under the National Education Policy 2020. Among the key aspects of the policy — which aims to make school education system future-ready with focus on inclusivity equity and so, , cial justice, and curriculum and pedagogical reforms — is the scrapping of Class 11 board exam to reduce exam- TN has a unique related stress for students. character. There While Tamil will be compul- is progressive sorily taught from classes 1 to thinking. This SEP has a vision 10 in all schools regardless of board affiliation, SEP retains for the future the 10+2 pattern, rejecting CM MK Stalin the 5+3+3+4 model of NEP . The government said SEP will be revised every three years, but the ‘Future Readiness’ component will be updated annually based on stakeholder feedback to keep pace with social, economic and technological changes. Under infrastructure development, TN will launch Vetri (Vibrant Education Targeting Reputed Institutions) Palligal (Schools of Success). P7 INSIDE ‘Progressive thought, future-ready vision’ I P4 EC cites Nath case order on rolls M U K E S H R A N J A N @ New Delhi Rejecting Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi’s allegations of voter list manipulation, the Election Commission of India (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. ECI officials said 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 that 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 affect voter privacy .” Can prove vote theft, says Rahul Rahul said if EC provides him 10 years of data — the voters’ list in machinereadable format and videos of polling stations, he can prove theft of voters in several Lok Sabha seats across the country | P9 Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman speaks in the Lok Sabha on Friday | pti What is changing 1 Earlier draft bill had some errors leading to confusion. The new version will simplify clauses 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-cumcharitable trusts will be exempt from tax; however, trusts that run hospitals and educational institutions will be subject to tax HC allows Anbumani to hold PMK meet, bins plea R S IV A K U M A R @ Chennai In a setback to PMK founder Dr S Ramadoss, the Madras High Court on Friday dismissed a petition praying for orders to restrain his son Dr Anbumani from holding the party’s general council meet at Mahabalipuram on Saturday The petition was filed by PMK general secretary Mu. rali Shankar, a supporter of senior Ramadoss. After a protracted “mediation” between Ramadoss through video-conferencing and in-person with Anbumani at his office chambers in the court failed to fetch desired results, Justice N Anand Venkatesh took up the petition for hearing in the evening, and subsequently dismissed it. Senior counsel NL Rajah and advocate K Balu appeared for Anbumani while K Arul represented the petitioner.  P7