TIMES CITY

* THE TIMES OF INDIA, NEW DELHI | TUESDAY, JUNE 30, 2015

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Rajendra Kumar still in office, MHA angry HC rejects AAP govt

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: The Union home

ministry is likely to order disciplinary action against senior IAS officer Rajendra Kumar, who continues to hold
the post of Delhi home secretary despite clear instructions to relinquish it.
Sources in the central government said the relevant file
was under process after lieutenant governor Najeeb Jung
wrote to the home ministry
last week seeking action
against the AGMUT cadre officer for defying his cadrecontrolling authority.

Dharam Pal was removed

by the Arvind Kejriwal government from the post of Delhi home secretary after he
signed on the appointment orders of ACB chief Mukesh
Meena on the LGs instructions. Though the state government brought Rajendra
Kumar in his place, the home
ministry later cancelled Dharam Pals transfer order. However, Kumar never relinquished charge of the post,
giving rise to a unique situation where the state has two
home secretaries.
Though the option of disciplinary action against Ku-

Sources in the home

ministry said a showcause notice may be
served to Kumar if
he continues his
defiant attitude
mar has been under consideration for some time now, the
Centre did not want to precipitate yet another confrontation with the Kejriwal government. Kumar is also
secretary to chief minister
Arvind Kejriwal.
However, despite two re-

minders to Kumar to give up

charge of the home secretarys post, the latter has remained defiant. A home ministry official on Saturday
suggested that the ministry,
which is the cadre-controlling authority for AGMUT
cadre IAS officers, will have

no option but to initiate disciplinary action against him.

He has to obey the cadre-controlling authority, as all civil
servants are expected to
while being in government
service or else, he must face
action, said a senior officer.
Sources in the home ministry said a show-cause notice
may be served to Kumar if he
continues his defiant attitude. An official said he may
be under increased pressure
to give up charge as home secretary now that Delhi high
court has refused to stay the
appointment of ACB chief
Mukesh Meena.

plea against Meena

Allows Officer To Continue As ACB Chief
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: The Delhi high

court on Monday declined the
Arvind Kejriwal governments plea to restrain M K
Meena from working as anticorruption branch chief. Allowing Meena to continue in
office, Justice V P Vaish, however, said Meena must discharge his duties in accordance with law.
The government urged HC
to prevent Meena from taking
out the FIR records from the
ACB headquarters and remove the paramilitary personnel posted there. Appearing for
the government, senior advocate Indira Jaising maintained that Meena needs to be
restrained from pressuring
ACB officials, but Justice
Vaish wondered if the ACB can
function smoothly if the senior cop is restrained from
working.
The court issued notice to
the Centre seeking its reply in
two weeks time to the charges
of interference in the working
of ACB, levelled by the AAP
government. The court has
now clubbed the latest plea of
the government with the ongoing litigation challenging the
Centres notification giving
LG Najeeb Jung absolute power to appoint bureaucrats in
the national capital. Both
cases are now expected to come
up for hearing on August 11.
The court further rejected
another prayer of the government to make Meena an indi-

The government urged

HC to prevent Meena
from taking out the FIR
records from the ACB
headquarters and
remove the paramilitary
personnel posted there
vidual party to its petition
challenging constitutional validity of the Centres May 21 notification.
In its application, the Delhi
government alleged Meena
had been misusing his powers to browbeat and threaten
officials of ACB and the vigilance department. It has cited
the example of its appointee S
S Yadav who recently accused
Meena of threatening and
pressuring him.
Jaising said during the 49day tenure last year, the Kejriwal government had lodged 21
cases but no cases have been
lodged after June 4, 2015 due to
M K Meenas taking charge on
June 8, 2015.
She alleged the Centre has
been repeatedly attempting to
interfere with and hamper the

smooth functioning of the

ACB. Jaising said, On numerous occasions, he (Meena)
has put pressure on ACB officers to transfer all cases of corruption involving police personnel from ACB to Delhi
Police. We want these intimidating tactics be stopped.
She sought an interim order to ensure that the ACB is allowed to function smoothly.
She also argued that the antigraft wing is being prevented from probing acts of corruption and misuse or abuse of
public office, to shield certain
people.
The objective appears to
be, to prejudice the attempts of
the elected government to uproot corruption from the national capital, hamper and
scuttle an ongoing investigation and compromise crucial
and sensitive evidence, the senior lawyer said.
On his part, additional solicitor-general Sanjay Jain,
representing the Centre, pointed out that ACB is a police station and falls within the Centres purview in Delhi. He said
Centre is fully empowered to
post an eligible officer to head
it and in any case Meena is a
joint commissioner, and not
some inspector.
Jain said the Delhi governments order recalling appointment of Meena had been
cancelled by the LG, who has
said that it was void ab initio
as the order was passed without taking approval from the
competent authority.

Govt plans to move SC;

Meena shunts ACBs SHO
Ambika.Pandit@timesgroup.com

New Delhi: On a day when Delhi high court declined the Aam
Aadmi Party governments
plea of restraining joint commissioner of police MK Meena
from working as the anti-corruption bureau chief, the latter
created a stir by shunting out
the station house officer and
bringing in a replacement. In
the evening, an order was issued by Meena removing inspector Vinay Malik as SHO
ACB and posting inspector Brij
Mohan in his place.
Sources said that the FIR
book was the reason for Meena
to take this step as it had not
been given to him earlier when
demanded. Last week, a
pitched battle of words had ensued between Meena, who has
been appointed by the lieutenant governor, and the chief
minister appointed ACB chief
SS Yadav over the FIR book. In
fact, Yadav has also gone on to
claim that he was being threatened by Meena.
The vigilance department
of Delhi government does not

recognize Meena as ACB chief

and it is learnt that the order of
shunting the SHO has been issued without consulting SS Yadav. The matter is expected to
lead to another flare-up. Sources said that the state feels that
Meena has not acted as per the
law and it is not proper to remove an SHO who has not completed his tenure of two years
without any valid reason. Malik has completed just about a

POWER TUSSLE
year in ACB. Meenas order has
been marked to SS Yadav.
Meanwhile, Delhi government is exploring the possibility of moving the Supreme
Court over Meenas appointment. Also, senior AAP functionaries prefer to see in the HC
order a point of favour where
the direction to follow the
law is an assertion of
the Kejriwal governments
stand. AAP has been upholding its orders on ACB citing jurisdictional powers under the
law and says they are valid
and worthy of debate and a test

before the court of law. The HC

will be hearing the matter in
August, but the government
may approach the apex court
before that.
Another dramatic development took place in the ACB battle involving the two chiefs.
Soon after the HC order came, a
home ministry order dated
April 28 started circulating
showing that MK Meena was
under order of transfer from
Delhi to Arunachal Pradesh.
This order states that
Meena was being allowed to
continue in Delhi for three
months. The time period ends
on July 7. This triggered a controversy as to how the Centre,
through the LG, posted an under transfer officer to ACB
with such urgency and how
would he continue to be on the
post after July 7.
While home ministry officials were unavailable for comment, M K Meena refused to
make any remarks. The matter
is expected to grow into a point
of discord in the coming
days between the LG and the
Delhi government.

CNG, alcohol, tobacco set

to become dearer in Delhi
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: The Delhi government moved a proposal in the

assembly on Monday to increase the upper limit on value
added tax (VAT) from 20% to
30%, making room for maximizing the levy on 11 items, including CNG, liquor, lottery
tickets and tobacco.
The AAP government, in its
maiden budget, did not impose
any fresh tax but with a vast
budgetary outlay of Rs 41,129
crore for the current fiscal, it is
looking to mop up all the resources it can. Justifying the VAT
amendment bill, deputy CM
Manish Sisodia said it would
improve ease of doing business and was aimed at maintaining a uniform tax structure
with neighbouring states.
Delhi Value Added Tax (2nd
Amendment) Bill seeks to make enabling provisions for levy
of VAT in respect of goods enlisted in Fourth Schedule at different rates instead of a flat rate of
20% with the condition that such tax rate will be higher than
12.5% but will not be over 30%.
The schedule applies to petroleum products other than liquid petroleum gas, piped natural gas, compressed natural gas
and kerosene besides aviation

PROPOSED CHANGES
The amendment
bill seeks to make
provisions for levy
of VAT on goods enlisted in the fourth
schedule at different rates instead of
a at rate of 20%
with the condition
that such tax rate
will be in the range
of 12.5-30%

The fourth schedule applies to

Petroleum products other than
liquid petroleum gas, PNG, CNG and
kerosene. The products include aviation
turbine fuel, spirit,
gasoline, wax, etc
Foreign liquor, IMFL,
country liquor, narcotics
(bhang), lottery tickets,
tobacco and gutkha, unmanufactured tobacco,
bidis, among others

turbine fuel, spirit, gasoline

and wax. Foreign and Indian
made foreign liquor, country liquor, narcotics (bhang), lottery
tickets, tobacco and gutka, unmanufactured tobacco, bidis
and tobacco used in manufacture of bidis and hooka tobacco
also come under this schedule.
The structure for these items is
20% as of now.
The bill proposes to dispense with the requirement of
making adjustments to output
tax by the selling dealer and input tax by the purchasing dealer in the event of release of postsale incentives by the selling dealer. They need not submit VAT
registration certificates while
filing for cancellation online.

The state also proposes to increase the time limit from 15

days to 45 days for seeking security from dealers claiming a tax
refund. It is also proposed to reduce the per day penalty amount from Rs 500 to Rs 200 for delay in furnishing information
relating to change in the nature
of business. There are plans to
reduce the per day penalty
amount from Rs 1,000 to Rs 200
in the event of delay by a dealer
in furnishing information relating to closure of business. It
is further proposed to reduce
the per day penalty amount
from Rs 500 to Rs 200 in the event
of delay in submission of a return or document required to
be submitted with the return.