ThespanbWeekly Reports:bspan Supreme Court of India

The past week at the Apex Court progressed at a slower pace than usual. There were few matters of interest, even as there was a brief break in the form of Republic Day on January 26..Read the highlights below..Monday, January 23.Service Tax on lawyers: Supreme Court grants leave in appeal from Bombay HC.A Bench of Justices Kurian Joseph and AM Khanwilkar has granted leave in an appeal which challenges the Bombay High Court order that had dismissed the challenge on imposition of service tax on lawyers..The case is a challenge to sub-clause (zzzzm) of clause (105) to Section 65 of the Finance Act, 1994, which was inserted by the Finance Act, 2011. The said section seeks to levy service tax on fees paid by clients to lawyers..It was challenged by various Bar Associations and lawyers in different parts of the country. High Courts including the Delhi High Court stayed the operation of the impugned section, while keeping the matter pending..#Coalgate: SC orders SIT probe into former CBI Director Ranjit Sinha’s role.The Supreme Court has ordered a probe into the allegations that former CBI director Ranjit Sinha was trying to scuttle the Coalgate investigation..A Bench of Justices Madan B Lokur, Kurian Joseph and AM Sikri ordered that a Special Investigation Team (SIT) be constituted to investigate the allegations brought to the fore by NGO Common Cause..The current CBI Director will head the SIT, which will be assisted in its task by Special Prosecutor RS Cheema. The Court also made it clear that it was not making any observations on the merit of the allegations..The order was passed by the court after considering a report submitted by former Special Director of the CBI, ML Sharma..Vacancies in the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal spell trouble for the government.The Supreme Court has issued notice in a petition filed by one Akshay Pundir, challenging the inaction of the central government in filling up vacancies in the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT)..The petitioner alleges that graft charges were levelled against two members who are currently working as Vice-Presidents. The petition prays that they may not be appointed as Presidents owing to their poor integrity..The petitioner has also sought for a direction to be issued to the respondents to take immediate steps to fill up the existing vacancies of Vice-Presidents under the terms of the DPC meeting conducted in 2015..Tuesday, January 24.Jallikattu Notification to be withdrawn, says Centre.The Supreme Court has been informed by the Centre that it is withdrawing its 2016 notification allowing Jallikattu in Tamil Nadu in view of the fresh legislation passed by the state assembly on the issue..A Bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra was informed about the same by Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi. The court has already reserved its verdict on a batch of petitions challenging the notification..Seven attempts and no more, says Apex Court.The Supreme Court has set aside Madras High Court and Delhi High Court judgments which had held that physically handicapped candidates belonging to Other Backward Classes (OBC), are entitled to avail ten attempts instead of seven attempts in civil services examinations..The bench comprising Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Ashok Bhushan noted that the domain of framing public policy was the domain of the Executive and said that “the Court can only interfere if the policy framed is absolutely capricious and non-informed by reasons, or totally arbitrary, offending the basic requirement of the Article 14 of the Constitution.”.Friday, January 27.SC takes a bite of the contempt pie, yet again.A Bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Ashok Bhushan has issued notice on a contempt matter concerning an advocate from Kerala..In an order dated November 1, Mohanan was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment and directed to pay a fine of Rs. 1,000 by a Division Bench of the Kerala High Court..Mohanan appealed before the Supreme Court, alleging that the notice of contempt was “mala fide” and that the procedure for issuance of contempt was completely bypassed by the judges of the High Court. He was represented by Advocate R Sathish, who also alleged that the Bench was biased against him, given the sensitive nature of the cases..The Bench chose not to set aside the High Court order completely, directing that the fine of Rs. 1000 be paid within two weeks, and also issued notice to the Kerala High Court..SAM, Salve for #Uber in predatory pricing complaint, Supreme Court issues notice.Uber has approached the Supreme Court of India challenging the order of the Competition Appellate Tribunal (COMPAT), which had ordered an investigation into charges of predatory pricing by the taxi aggregator..The matter was heard by a Bench of Justices Dipak Misra and DY Chandrachud, which issued notice to the Competition Commission of India (CCI) and Meru and also granted status quo on the investigation by DG.