NEWS

New Delhi: The CBDT on Saturday alleged that actor Sonu Sood and his associates evaded tax of Rs 20 crore and claimed that after the Income Tax Department raided him and a linked Lucknow-based infrastructure group it was found that he routed his "unaccounted income in the form of bogus unsecured loans from many bogus entities".

It also accused Sood of violating the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) while raising donations from abroad. The department had launched searches against the 48-year-old actor and the Lucknow-based group of industries involved in infrastructure on September 15 and the CBDT said the action was continuing.

BJP president J P Nadda lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership on his birthday and cited decisions such as the nullification of Article 370 and banning of instant triple talaq to assert that he did what was considered impossible.

Nadda also launched his party's 20-day "Seva aur Samarpan" campaign during which the party will undertake a number of welfare measures to mark Modi's birthday and his 20 years as head of a government, including as Gujarat chief minister.

"Abolition of Article 370, ban on triple talaq, paving the way for the construction of grand Ram Temple, surgical strikes and air strikes on terrorists, implementation of One Rank One Pension, Ayushman Bharat medical insurance cards to over 55 crore citizens... All these are some of the works which Modi has done in seven years which were considered impossible and none of his predecessors dared to do," he said.

New Delhi: Chief Justice of India N V Ramana on Saturday said Indianisation of the country's legal system is the need of the hour and it is crucial to make the justice delivery system more accessible and effective. He said Courts need to be litigant-centric, and the simplification of justice delivery should be the pressing concern.

"Very often our justice delivery poses many barriers for the common people. The working and the style of courts do not sit well with the complexities of India. Our systems, practice, rules being colonial in origin, it may not be best suited to the needs of the Indian population," Justice Ramana said.

In an important decision to discourage needless and unnecessary litigations, particularly in corporate matters where companies with deep pockets fight legal battles, the Supreme Court on Friday said a fine must be imposed and the amount should be money spent by the target of such litigation by way of case and lawyer fees.

A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Hrishikesh Roy said that the judiciary must shed its "hesitancy" in imposing costs on parties for misusing the judicial process and those who abuse the system must face the consequences. The bench was particularly concerned over the corporates misusing judicial platforms for settling scores against rivals and said that the erring party should pay a cost to its rival for dragging it to litigation.