14 Greater KashmirSrinagar | December 17, 2015, Thursday

PAN mandatory in hotel bill payments, foreign travel tickets

New Delhi, Dec 16: The government on Wednesday announced mandatory quot-ing of income tax permanent account number (PAN) for payment of hotel bills and buying of foreign travel tickets costing Rs.50,000 and above.

PAN would also be man-datory for cash payments of more than Rs.50,000 for cash cards or prepaid instruments, as well as for acquiring shares in unlisted companies for Rs.1 lakh and above.

The new norms aimed to curb domestic black money generation will be effective from January 1, 2016, Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia told reporters here.

Furnishing of PAN for post

office deposits of over Rs.50,000 has been dispensed with to facilitate small investors.

Adhia said PAN has been mandatory for opening all bank accounts, except Prad-han Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana accounts.

He said on purchase of jew-ellery or bullion, major sources of generation of black money, PAN would be required if the sum involved is Rs.2 lakh per transaction. Currently, it is mandatory for transaction of Rs.5 lakh and above.

PAN will also be manda-tory on purchase of immov-able property of Rs.10 lakh and above.

Non-luxury cash transac-tions of Rs.2 lakh will also require submission of PAN details.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told parliament on Tuesday that the government had made PAN mandatory for cash transactions of Rs.2,00,000 and above.

An official notification in this regard would be issued shortly, he told the Lok Sabha while presenting his minis-try's supplementary demand for grants. IANS

Chinar Corps celebrates Vijay DiwasSrinagar, Dec 16: The Chinar Corps celebrated the 44th anniversary of victory in the 1971 Indo-Pak war by remembering the heroes of the war.

“A brief but solemn ceremony was organised in Badami Bagh Canton-ment for the serving sol-diers and ex-servicemen. The event was attended by a large number of Army and civil persons. Lt Gen Satish Dua, Chinar Corps Commander paid homage to the martyrs by laying a wreath at the War Memo-rial in the Badami Bagh Cantonment,” a defence spokesman said.

“Similar functions were held at different Army for-mations and units in the Valley where in spirit of camaraderie and brother-hood was overwhelming,” he added.

New Delhi, Dec 16: The Supreme Court today came out with a slew of guidelines to improve the collegium system of appointment of judges in the higher judiciary to make it more transparent and accountable by asking the Centre to finalise a memoran-dum of procedure (MOP) in consultation with the Chief Justice of India.

A five-judge constitution bench headed by Justice J S Khehar also asked the gov-ernment to look into five key aspects -- eligibility criteria, transparency in appointment process, setting up of Secretar-iat for management of selection process, mechanism to deal with complaints against those who are being considered for appointment and to look into the miscellaneous issues.

The bench, also compris-ing Justices J Chelameswar, Madan B Lokur, Kurian Joseph and Adarsh Kumar Goel, said that Centre may finalize the existing MOP by supplementing it in consulta-tion with the CJI.

"In view of the above, the Government of India may finalize the existing MOP by supplementing it in consulta-tion with the Chief Justice of India. The Chief Justice of India will take a decision based on the unanimous view of the collegium comprising the four senior most puisne Judges of the Supreme Court," the bench said.

"The MOP may indicate the eligibility criteria, such as the minimum age, for the guidance of the collegium (both at the level of the High Court and the Supreme Court) for appoint-

ment of Judges, after inviting and taking into consideration the views of the State Govern-ment and the Government of India (as the case may be) from time to time," it said.

For ensuring transparency in the appointment process, the bench said, "The eligibil-ity criteria and the procedure as detailed in the MoP for the appointment of Judges ought to be made available on the web-site of the Court concerned and on the website of the Depart-ment of Justice of the Govern-ment of India."

The bench also noted that the MOP may provide for an appropriate procedure for "minuting the discussions including recording the dis-senting opinion of the Judges in the collegium while making provision for the confidenti-ality of the minutes consis-tent with the requirement of transparency in the system of appointment of Judges."

The bench said that for better management of the system, the MOP may provide for establishment of Secretari-at for each high courts and the apex court and prescribe its functions, duties and respon-sibilities.

"The MOP may provide for any other matter consid-ered appropriate for ensuring transparency and account-ability including interaction with the recommendee(s) by the collegium of the Supreme Court, without sacrificing the confidentiality of the appoint-ment process," it said.

However, the bench clari-fied that the guidelines men-tioned in its order were only broad suggestions for consider-

ation and supplementing MOP.The court passed the order

after noting the submission of Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi that the MOP and introducing amendments therein, had always been pre-pared by the Government in consultation with the Presi-dent of India and the CJI.

The bench agreed to the sug-gestion of Rohatgi who had said that the same procedure would be adopted now, if the task was entrusted to the executive.

The court also noted down the submissions of the AG who had noted that formulation of MOP was an administrative responsibility which fell in the executive domain and the apex court neither had exper-tise nor the wherewithal for proposing amendments in the existing MOP which was drawn on June 30, 1999 by the Government for improving the collegium system.

The court passed the guide-lines after taking into account suggestions received from various stakeholders who had sent them on the website of the Ministry of Law and Justice.

"It is important to note that the compilation of the written suggestions placed before us was in the nature of a summary prepared out of approximately 11,500 pages of views expressed. We had a very challenging responsibility to embark upon and reflect, and thereafter, to sieve such of the suggestions as were likely to improve the col-legium system," the bench said.

"Only then would we be in a position to sponsor their intro-duction into the MOP for the appointment of Judges of the higher judiciary," it said. PTI

Prepare MoP on appointment of judges, consult CJI: SC to Govt

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