Page 22 - Banking Finance November 2024

LEGAL UPDATE

SC launches web page for

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summaries of judgments
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The Supreme Court announced the Ô Ô Ô Ô Ô » »» »¹ ¹¹ ¹ ¿ ¿¿ ¿ ´ ´´ ´
launch of a new webpage on its offi-
cial website providing summaries of
landmark judgments.
The initiative will make it easier for Ò»©­
citizens to understand the important
decisions delivered by the top court in
line with its broader goal of ensuring
an informed citizenry, promoting legal
awareness, and enhancing public en-
gagement with the law, said an official
statement released by the Supreme Planning of the Supreme Court," it assesses to respond to the show cause
Court. added. notices," a three-judge Bench led by
It added that SC decisions impact di- Further, the statement said that each Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud said in
verse areas of public life nationwide, case is identifiable by a subject line its judgment.
however, complex legal language and that provides a one-line description of In the earlier judgment in May 2022,
the length of judgments can serve as the case and offers direct links to view the court had held preventing a loss to
a barrier to citizens' understanding the full judgment along with video re- the public exchequer as a reason for its
and may even lead to misconceptions cordings of the hearings and oral tran- verdict.
about important verdicts.
scripts of the arguments, if available. Judgment also set aside various high
"The court therefore recognises the court orders that prevented the de-
importance of making its judgments
accessible to all citizens. To overcome SC ruling allows revenue partment from issuing tax notices un-
this barrier and to ensure that all per- dept to go beyond 3-year der the old regime.
sons can easily understand its signifi- Nikhil Tiwari, tax partner, EY India, said
cant decisions, the new webpage pro- rule this ruling would affect assessment
vides accurate summaries of important Following this, 9,000-plus writ petitions years 2013-14 to 2017-18.
decisions in simple and clear lan- were filed in various courts, challeng- S R Patnaik, partner (head, taxation),
guage," it said. ing the notices. Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, said:
The 'Landmark Judgment Summaries' The department had issued these no- "This issue of applicability of TOLA
webpage on the official site of the apex tices under Section 148 of the Income- (Taxation and Other Laws Act) to the
court features a year-wise curated list Tax Act, alleging under-reporting and post-Finance Act 2021 regime had
of significant judgments of public inter- misreporting of income for years be- been a contentious issue wherein a lot
est. fore the three-year period. of assessees receiving notices felt un-
fairly targeted. However, this judg-
The summaries are written in a man- "The time during which the show-
ner that allows readers to understand cause notices were deemed to be ment has now upheld all such conten-
both the outcome of a case and the stayed is from the date of issuance of tious notices and all such pending as-
reasoning of the court, the statement the deemed notice between April 1, sessment proceedings have been vali-
said. 2021 and June 30, 2021 till the supply dated."
"The webpage will continue to be up- of relevant information and material Rishabh Malhotra, counsel, DMD Ad-
dated to include summaries of new by the assessing officers to the assesses vocates, said: "This situation may lead
decisions as well as important histori- in terms of the directions issued by this to taxpayers receiving notices related
cal decisions. The summaries are pre- Court in Ashish Agarwal (supra), and to these reassessment proceedings,
pared by the Centre for Research and the period of two weeks allowed to the causing anxiety and confusion regard-

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