CLAT

Directions: Each question below is followed by two arguments numbered I and II. You have to decide which of the arguments is a ‘strong’ argument and which is a ‘weak’ argument.

Give answer (a) : if only argument I is strong

Give answer (b) : if only argument II is strong.

Give answer (c) : if either argument I or II is strong.

Give answer (d) : if neither argument I nor II is strong.

Give answer (e) : if both arguments I and II are strong

​Q.

Statement: Should the educated unemployed youth be paid “unemployment allowance” by the Government?

Arguments:

I. Yes, it will provide them some monetary help to either seek employment or to kickstart some ‘self- employment’ venture.

II. No, it will dampen their urge to do something to earn their livelihood and thus promote idleness among the unemployed youth. 

[X] bridge is to be the World's highest rail bridge. [X] bridge, the world’s tallest railway bridge over Chenab River in Kouri area, will achieve another ""engineering milestone"", Railways minister [Y] said on Twitter on Thursday.

Infrastructural Marvel in Making: Indian Railways is well on track to achieve another engineering milestone with the steel arch of [X] bridge reaching at closure position. It is all set to be the world's highest Railway bridge,"" [Y] tweeted sharing the important development.

According to Railways officials, the [X] bridge is being constructed 359 metres above [X]'s river bed and will be 35 metres taller than the [Z] (which has a height of 324 metre).

According to Deepak Kumar, Chief Public Relations Officer, Northern Railway, the arch closure will be complete by March 2021. ""[X] bridge is expected to be complete by year end,"" Deepak Kumar said. The railway bridge is being built to cross the deep gorge, and the main arch has a span length of 467 metres, which Indian Railways claims is the largest in the country. Once the arch is complete, viaduct and track laying work will start, learns TOI.

Killings of men, women and even couples belonging to separate castes have become a staple of casteism all over India. Their dismay associated with inter-caste involvement in any manner invites all kinds of judgments from like-minded peers who thrive around them. Indian Caste crimes have existed ever since the inception of India as an independent nation, with violent attacks against Brahmins by the kunbi-Maratha community after the assassination of MK Gandhi by Nathuram Godse, a Brahmin himself. The caste system, although one of the oldest forms of social stratification which divides Hindus on the basis of their karma (work) and dharma (duty) has become an elaborate excuse for some in recent years for violent inflictions over the lower classes. The caste system as mentioned in the Manusmriti exists as a basis of order and regularity of the Hindu society, and nowhere mentions the need for stratification with bloodshed or an uncalled-for oppression of lower castes. The Dalits have belonged, according to the caste system, outside the four major varnas namely Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras. Every year, events such as inter-caste marriages, the involvement of a lower caste with the upper ones, and several other menial ones call for brutal bloodshed and murders in the name of honor and protection of one's make-believe casteist sanctity, which are really only crimes against humanity and equality and root from an uneducated, oftentimes narrow mind.

The colonization of India shaped the caste system into what it is today. Susan Bayly, a Professor of Historical Anthropology in the Cambridge University states that the British caste tables ""ranked, standardised and cross-referenced jati listings for Indians on principles similar to zoology and botanical classifications, aiming to establish who was superior to whom by virtue of their supposed purity, occupational origins and collective moral worth."" This enabled the Brits to segregate between castes and provide jobs and other work opportunities to the upper castes only. Inter-caste feuds and tensions after almost a century of the inhumane British system's existence was inevitable, and came to a full bloom after India's independence in 1947. Since 1947, there has not been a single year up until 2019 in India where caste-related killings and violence (both reported and unreported) haven't sprouted up at different places within the country. Moreover, what's deeply disturbing is the fact that the people who strictly follow their caste guidelines do not care of the implications of indulging into caste related crimes, and hence become an ongoing threat to a nation which aims to chase humanitarian equality and steep developments.

Read the passage carefully and answer the questions given beside it.

During the 2014 national and State elections, for the first time women’s safety and empowerment were topics of debate, marking a significant shift in how gender concerns are viewed by the political class as well as by voters in India. In the two years since, policy focus and public scrutiny on persistent gender inequality has grown exponentially. In 2015, 194 member states, including India, adopted the Sustainable Development Goals. Gender equality is one of the 17 goals to “transform our world”. This year, India ratified the Paris Agreement. The direct link between empowering women and alleviating poverty, increasing productivity, and combating climate change is well recognised. However, the lack of targeted resources is often stated to be the biggest reason behind the sluggish progress in furthering the gender agenda. Therefore, it is important that India’s budget priorities reflect its commitment to invest in women and girls.Last year, the World Economic Forum’s annual Global Gender Gap Report ranked India 87 in terms of gender equality in economy, education, health, and political representation. Women’s declining labour participation, underrepresentation in Parliament, skewed child sex ratio, and prevalent gender-based violence are recognised challenges. To bridge these gaps, India formally adopted Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) in 2005.

The rationale behind GRB is that policy outcomes are not as gender-neutral as commonly believed, and can reinforce or exacerbate exiting hierarchies. Hence, gender budgeting initiatives aim to integrate critical gender concerns into fiscal policies and administration to address disparities.Every annual budget since 2005 has included a statement that lists out two parts. There is Part A, which reflects ‘Women Specific Schemes’, namely, those which have 100 per cent allocation for women, and Part B, which reflects ‘Pro Women Schemes’, namely, where at least 30 per cent of the allocation is for women. Over the years, India has stood out for its implementation of gender budgeting, and with the Ministry of Finance (MoF) playing the central role, it has managed to successfully institutionalise the concept at both the national and State levels (16 States have embraced the exercise). Studies substantiate the positive link between GRB and improved indicators for women.

For instance, a recent International Monetary Fund study found that States that employ GRB also show better female to male school enrolment ratios. Further, it was observed that GRB also has a positive impact on infrastructure spending.Despite the successes, better implementation and planning are needed to ensure that these policies percolate right down to the last woman in the most remote parts of the country. In recent years, allocations have either remained stagnant or have been on the decline.

For instance, Budget 2016-17 was widely considered to be a mixed bag for women. While the Ministry of Women and Child Development and National Commission for Women saw nominal increases, the scheme meant for implementing the Domestic Violence Act did not receive any allocation. Further, there was a decline in the number of ministries and departments that fall under GRB. The budget also initiated the decentralisation of funding in GRB, thus shifting the onus for budgeting and implementation from the Central Ministry to State counterparts. While this did empower the States to come up with women-specific policies as per their respective challenges, the obvious downside was the risk that States could choose to not prioritise gender in their budgeting. In this way, the intent of universalising the process, so that it equally benefits women in all States, was lost in the pragmatism of the move and for it to be truly effective, GRB must be viewed as an essential tool to tackle societal inequality that hinders progress instead of a symbolic exercise for pleasing the emerging women constituency.

The trademark law in several jurisdictions allows the trademark of an honest and concurrent user to coexist with another similar mark. In fact the defence of honest concurrent users came into being through Dent vs. Turpin which determined that two users of a mark (which had derived from a common predecessor) had a separate right to obtain an injunction against a third person using the mark. The case was the first to come up with such a relevant law and the subsequent case laws adopted the same rule.

For instance in Southorn v. Reynolds (1865) 12 LT 75, the Dent vs. Turpin case was relied on to come to a conclusion on a very similar fact where the court again emphasized on restraining a person from misrepresenting his goods as those of another.

The facts of the case Dent vs. Turpin are as follows - Father Dent had two clock shops, one in the City and the other in the West end. He bequeathed one to each son which resulted in two clocks businesses each called Dent. Neither could stop the other from using the name however each could stop a third party by granting an injunction. In this case the defendant Turpin could be granted injunction from using “Dent” for such a business. Any consumer in the general public who only knows one of the businessmen would assume that the other part of it would be deceived. But still passing off would not lie for one son against the other because of the positive rights the other has with regard to his business. But it can lie against a third party is what was held in the case.

In John Fitton & Co (1949) 66 RPC 110, 112 (Reg) certain defenses were laid down for the honest and concurrent user

1. The extent of use in time and quantity and the area of the trade

2. The degree of confusion likely to ensue from the resemblance of the marks which is to a large extent indicative of the measure of public inconvenience

3. Whether any instances of confusion have in fact been proved, and

4. The relative inconvenience which would be caused if the mark were registered, subject if necessary to any conditions and limitations.

Article 14 of the Constitution guarantees equality before law and equal protection of laws to everyone. Article 15(1) generally prohibits any discrimination against any citizen on the grounds of religion, caste, sex or place of birth.

The Delhi Government rolled out a travel scheme that offers free rides to women in over 5,500 state-run buses in the national capital. Freedom of movement is not only a human right - emphasized in the Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - but is also an economic imperative. It is important to note that restriction on movement of women is not limited to a legal imposition. When we have social and economic norms that make mobility to workplace difficult or fail to protect women from sexual harassment in public places, we are indeed restricting their freedom to move. We are ergo impairing them in terms of economics, freedom and human rights.

India ranks 121 among 131 countries in female labour force participation rate averaging at 23 per cent. At 17 percent of GDP, the economic contribution of Indian women is less than half the global average. Women's workforce participation rate in Delhi is shamefully low at 11 per cent, which is even below the national average. Increasing this participation is paramount not only for gender equality but also for national economic progress. A prominent way to achieve this is through increasing freedom of mobility for women.

In a deeply unequal country like ours, where women still have to take money from their fathers, husbands and sons for every small expense, free bus travel will give women independence to move freely and save monetarily. These in turn increase women's decision-making abilities and empower them. The inclusion of bus marshals to ensure protection of the commuting women further advances their mobility.

While the United Nations Human Rights Committee concurred that ""Liberty of movement is an indispensable condition for the free development of a person,"" the Delhi model has become one of the first 100 cities globally to apply this belief in a literal sense - in the transport sector for women. The rationale for doing so is simple and is printed on the 'pink ticket' in the hands of all women who have used buses in Delhi - ""When women progress, the country progresses.""

Paragraph: A group of 15 foreign envoys based in New Delhi, including the US ambassador to India, began a two-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday. This represents only the second high-profile foreign delegation to visit the region since the revocation of Article 370 last August. The Centre’s aim in inviting them is to let them judge for themselves its claim of normalcy having been restored.
The last visit by a foreign delegation, of members of European Parliament back in October, did not work out well, and this is a chance for New Delhi to make amends. But then, Kashmir has been wracked by terrorism for so long that what constitutes “normalcy" there is hard to assess. Perhaps a comparison with the state of affairs before the region’s autonomy was withdrawn would help. Information is scarce, but we do know that much of the Valley is under what one would call a “cyber curfew", with internet services having been cut off since August. Also, the state’s top leaders remain in detention. While allowing diplomats in is clearly a positive sign, it would aid India’s cause to let Kashmiris get back online. The world is waiting to hear from them on social media.

Q. The bench delivering the aforementioned judgment consisted of the following Justice J. Ramana, Subash Reddy and X.and another judge X is

Read the passage given below and answer the questions based on it.

“Finally, the new decade of 2020 has brought a new ray of hope in the life of the Bru-Reang community.” The agreement was an example of cooperative federalism, he said, thanking the Chief Ministers of Tripura and Mizoram for helping to conclude it. He said insurgency in the northeastern region had significantly come down, citing the recent surrender in Assam of 644 militants of [X] groups. Last year, he said, more than 80 insurgents returned to the mainstream in Tirpura. Tripura was the first State in the region to lift the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act.
Mr. Modi utilised the occasion to appeal for peace. “On the solemn occasion of the Republic Day, I would appeal to anyone in any part of the country, who’s still seeking solutions to problems through violence and weapons, to return to the mainstream,” he said.
Mr. Modi’s monthly radio address is the first of the year and the [Y] edition of the programme. The timing was changed to 6 p.m. from 11 a.m. in view of the Republic Day parade.

Q. Which of the following organisation's militants surrendered?

Every night my father took the path from the cemetery to our house. I pretended to be asleep while he looked for the stick that he used to hide in my closet. I left the door open for him and played an amusing game with him – he left his eyes in his grave and every time I hid his stick in a different place. I watched him with half an eye until he gave up. Then he curled up on the floor, miserable and tired. I got out of bed, took his hand and walked him back to the cemetery gate before the people of the house woke up. He walked through the gate confidently and with assurance, and I watched him from a short distance as he disappeared among the graves. I’d never thought of getting rid of the stick. On the contrary, I’d taken extra care of it since my father’s night visits began. After each visit I got rid of one of the scars he had given me with it. I had gotten rid of all but one scar that was left at the bottom of the list. I didn’t know where it was, on the skin or beneath it. One last visit from him and it would all be over and I would have eliminated them all. This time I would leave him lying curled up miserably in the corner of the room for longer than usual. I might wait until dawn or until he swallowed his pride and asked me openly to escort him back to his grave before the sun came up. But he didn’t come for three nights. His absence made me very anxious. On the fourth night I decided to look for him. But this would be his last visit to us and then I would leave his stick-on top of his grave and he wouldn’t bother walking around at night dead and blind. At two o’clock in the morning I left my room quietly, taking care not to wake my mother, who leaves the door of her bedroom ajar. I didn’t think about how I was going to persuade my father to visit us for one last time. But what dead person doesn’t hope to be invited out for a walk at night so that they can breathe cool refreshing air? At the cemetery gate I spotted two shadows moving in the distance. It was my mother laying into my father with the stick. My father was trying to avoid her blows but he wasn’t moving from where he was or making any noise. From my hiding place I heard her say, “You bastard, I told you not to hit him on the head. Don’t hit him on the head or you’ll kill him.” I felt my head and found a deep wound covered with dried blood. I went through the cemetery gate and disappeared among the graves sunk in darkness.

It is quite understandable that a recent Supreme Court judgment, that there is no fundamental right to claim reservation in promotions, has caused some political alarm. The received wisdom in affirmative action jurisprudence is that a series of Constitution amendments and judgments have created a sound legal framework for reservation in public employment, subject to the fulfillment of certain constitutional requirements. And that it has solidified into an entitlement for the backward classes, including the SCs and STs. However, the latest judgment is a reminder that affirmative action programmes allowed in the Constitution flow from ”enabling provisions” and are not rights as such. This legal position is not new. Major judgments — these include those by Constitution Benches — note that Article 16(4), on reservation in posts, is enabling in nature. In other words, the state is not bound to provide reservations, but if it does so, it must be in favour of sections that are backward and inadequately represented in the services based on quantifiable data. Thus, the Court is not wrong in setting aside an Uttarakhand High Court order directing data collection on the adequacy or inadequacy of representation of SC/ST candidates in the State‘s services. Its reasoning is that once there is a decision not to extend reservation — in this case, in promotions — to the section, the question whether its representation in the services is inadequate is irrelevant.
Q. Which article envisages the establishment of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes?

Homeostasis, an animal’s maintenance of certain internal variables within an acceptable range, particularly in extreme physical environments, has long interested biologists. The desert rat and the camel in the most water-deprived environments, and marine vertebrates in an all-water environment, encounter the same regulatory problem: maintaining adequate internal fluid balance.

For desert rats and camels, the problem is conservation of water in an environment where standing water is nonexistent, temperature is high, and humidity is low. Despite these handicaps, desert rats are able to maintain the osmotic pressure of their blood, as well as their total body-water content, at approximately the same levels as other rats. One countermeasure is behavioral: these rats stay in burrows during the hot part of the day, thus avoiding loss of fluid through panting or sweating, which are regulatory mechanisms for maintaining internal body temperature by evaporative cooling. Also, desert rats’ kidneys can excrete a urine having twice as high a salt content as sea water.

Camels, on the other hand, rely more on simple endurance. They cannot store water, and their reliance on an entirely unexceptional kidney results in a rate of water loss through renal function significantly higher than that of desert rats. As a result, camels must tolerate losses in body water of up to thirty percent of their body weight. Nevertheless, camels do rely on a special mechanism to keep water loss within a tolerable range: by seating and panting only when their body temperature exceeds that which would kill a human, they conserve internal water.

Marine vertebrates experience difficulty with their water balance because though there is no shortage of seawater to drink, they must drink a lot of it to maintain their internal fluid balance. But the excess salts from the seawater must be discharged somehow, and the kidneys of most marine vertebrates are unable to excrete a urine in which the salts are more concentrated than in seawater. Most of these animals have special salt-secreting organs outside the kidney that enable them to eliminate excess salt.

Which of the following statements is best described as an assertion of opinion rather than an assertion of fact?

Direction:

Direction: In this section every question is appended with facts and principles, and multiple-choice answers. You are required to read the facts carefully, then read the principles, apply the principles to the given facts and make a select one the option which is the most appropriate answer from the given choices.

Principles:The object of an agreement is lawful unless it is forbidden by law; is of such a nature that, if permitted, it would defeat the provisions of any law; is fraudulent; involves or implied injury to the person or property of another person; the court regards it as immoral; it is opposed to public policy.

 Facts: A was arrested by the police for committing an offence and was subsequently granted bail by the Court. One of the conditions imposed by the Court for granting bail was that A arrange for a surety for Rs. 50,000. A approached B to be a surety. B agreed, but insisted that they enter into a contract whereby A would deposit Rs. 50,000 into B’s account, which would be returned to A by B after the case was over.

Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) should be exempted from caste reservations for faculty appointments as they are institutes of national importance, proposes an expert panel appointed to recommend measures to better implement reservations at IITs.

In a report submitted to Rakesh Ranjan, additional secretary, department of higher education, Ministry of Education (MoE), on July 17, the committee proposed that the institutes be included in the list of ‘Institutes of Excellence’ which are exempted from caste-based reservations according to the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Teachers’ Cadre) Act (CEI Act) of 2019. The committee report, a copy of which has been accessed by HT, was recently released following a right to information (RTI) plea filed by an activist in Uttar Pradesh.

The eight-member committee was formed by the MoE in April to suggest measures for effective implementation of reservation rules in admission and faculty selection at IITs. V Ramgopal Rao, director IIT-Delhi and chairperson of the committee, said the report was final and refused to comment further. “It has been submitted to the ministry,” he said.

In light of the recent communal riots in Delhi, it has again become pertinent for policymakers and urban planners to look at urban residential segregation as one of the major factors that precipitate communal violence in India.

Neighborhood diversity, for Indian urban planners, mostly meant reserving a few low-income group plots/apartments in new housing projects. The dominant strands in Indian urbanism have not studied caste or religion as a significant factor influencing the politics of space making. Any segregation, as research on race in US cities shows, is detrimental to economic growth, societal equity, and economic mobility, and leads to alienation of communities.

The Harvard research found that less residential segregation results in upward social and economic mobility. Residential segregation aggravates existing socio-economic inequality. There is enough empirical evidence to suggest that neighborhoods with more diversity have lower crime rates when compared to homogeneous neighborhoods.

Segregation also results in the ghettoization of minority and poor groups, and this aspect of stratification spills over to the next generations. In times of communal violence, it becomes easy to target individuals of a particular group or community — as it happened in Delhi recently.

The Los Angeles riots of 1992, for example, were also a result of highly segregated residential neighborhoods with “unequal social and political endowments and economic niches”, as shown by a study conducted by the Rand Corporation.

Various studies have shown that people living in heterogeneous neighborhoods are less discriminatory towards people belonging to other races and ethnic groups. If you live in segregated neighborhoods, it is easy to demonize the ‘other’— which often happens to Muslims in India. Previous research showed that many Indian cities are segregated along caste lines. Since the Census of India doesn’t make enumeration block-level data of the religious public, it becomes difficult to study residential segregation along religious lines.

Researchers like Raphael Susewind have tried to overcome this lack of data by using polling booth-level data to study the residential segregation of Muslims in Indian cities. In his research study titled ‘Muslims in Indian cities: Degrees of segregation and the elusive ghetto’, Susewind uses a probabilistic algorithm to deduce the religion of the person in the voter list. The findings show that Delhi and Ahmedabad are the most segregated cities for Muslims while Jaipur, Kozhikode, and Lucknow are the least segregated.

Lucknow and Jaipur have not experienced communal riots in the past many decades. As scholar Ashutosh Varshney notes, Lucknow’s only major communal riot took place in 1924, and there were no communal riots during India’s partition in 1947, or even during heightened tensions after the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition. According to him, the economic integration of Muslims and Hindus in the city is the major reason for the absence of communal riots.

Whether economic integration leads to diverse neighborhoods or diverse neighborhoods result in the economic integration of communities requires further research.

The central bank doesn‘t disclose its foreign exchange management strategy, but it was evident in the last few years that the rupee was not allowed to appreciate despite healthy inflows, resulting in a rapid build-up of foreign exchange. From a low of $275 billion in September of 2013, when rupee came under severe pressure due to so-called ‘taper tantrums‘ by the US Federal Reserve, India now has record foreign exchange reserves of [1] billion, as on 21 August -a 95 per cent rise over seven years. Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, the foreign exchange kitty swelled by $62 billion since March. In this seven-year period, rupee ended the year with an appreciat ion against the dollar only once - in 2017. This year, the rupee is so far down by 2.04 per cent against the dollar. The latest RBI statement suggested that it is not uncomfortable with the appreciation in rupee, confirming the speculation among currency analysts that a departure was made in the exchange management policy.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said that it will conduct liquidity operations worth Rs 20,000 crore in two tranches through sale and purchase of government securities (G-Secs). The two open market operations (OMOs) of Rs 10,000 crore each will be conducted on September 10 and 17, the central bank said in an official release. This is now the second such announcement in as many weeks. Last week, RBI had announced sale and purchase of GSecs worth Rs 20,000 crore, in two tranches, slated to be conducted on August 27 and September 3. In another move, RBI announced the infusion of Rs 1 lakh crore in mid September through long-term repo operations (LTROs) at floating rates, or the prevailing repo rate. Moreover, the central bank also gave an option to lenders who have earlier availed funds through LTROs, to reverse their transactions before maturity.

It was submitted to the Supreme Court that there is a need to link the social media profiles of users with their Aadhar numbers, and if required, have platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp share this number (which acts like a unique identity) with law enforcement agencies to help detect crimes. This is needed to check fake news, defamatory articles, anti-national content, etc.

To briefly characterize social media, it refers to any interactive technology mediated by a computer, which enables the creation and dissemination of ideas, information, opinions, career interests, and other kinds of expression through virtual communities and networks. The Supreme Court, declared the right to privacy as a fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution in the Puttaswamy judgment. The court noted that the right to bodily integrity, autonomy over personal decisions, and protection of personal information – all fall within the right to privacy. At the same time, the court also noted that this right was not absolute – it permitted exceptions, should there be a legitimate aim of the state, and the invasion of privacy was proportional to the object sought to be achieved.

When the constitutional validity of the Aadhar had to be ascertained the majority opinion held that the Act was legal and intra vires the Constitution in all but some respects. It was clarified that only those benefits and services that were in the nature of a ‘subsidy’ or a ‘government welfare scheme’ could require linking of Aadhar.

The curbing of fake news, defamatory content, etc. does come across as a legitimate goal of the State. However, the proportionality of this measure cannot easily be understood or justified, as the linking of social media accounts to Aadhar would necessarily involve a highly intrusive presence of the state in our daily lives, and make it difficult for people to express their opinions without concerns of incarceration. A notable point is the precarious situation that such a linking would create for the right to freedom of speech and expression, guaranteed under Article 19(1)Option A of the Constitution, making it illusory and cosmetic.

This move would bolster the already-rampant use of the unconstitutional section 66A of the Information Technology Act. Linking of social media accounts to Aadhar would increase the incidence of such use of section 66A as tracing content and information back to individuals would become easier and more persons could be charged with this section. It is essential that social media be a ‘free’ platform, where individuals can speak their minds without the fear.

There is an android application named “Ketomato”, which provides a platform to search for restaurants delivering food for individuals following Keto-diet specifically and also has a virtual chatroom provided for people to have conversation related to heathy food and lifestyle. The application also has a section where people can review the services of restaurants.

Vodafone Group Plc has won yet another round in its 13-year-long battle with India’s tax authorities. On Friday, an international arbitration tribunal ruled that the Indian government’s efforts to claim more than ₹20,000 crore in tax (including related interest and penalties) from Vodafone using retrospective legislation was in clear breach of the ‘fair and equitable treatment’ protections afforded under Article 4(1) of the Bilateral Investment Treaty between India and the Netherlands. The ruling upholding the British multinational’s stand ought to end India’s protracted and often perverse pursuit of what at the very outset was a highly contentious claim. The dispute began in September 2007 when tax authorities served a demand on Vodafone International Holdings BV for tax that it said Vodafone’s Dutch unit ought to have withheld while acquiring the controlling stake in the erstwhile Hutchison Essar Ltd. from Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd. Since the stake purchase transaction took place outside India between two overseas entities, Vodafone was emphatic from the start that it was not liable for any tax relating to the deal. Following a setback at the Bombay High Court, Vodafone presented its position to the Supreme Court, which ruled in its favour in 2012. In a move, fraught with implications for all its international investment treaties, the government of the day, however, amended the tax legislation to give retrospective effect to its claims. This was the trigger for the U.K.-based company to seek arbitral recourse.

For Vodafone, the legal win is at best a pyrrhic victory. After having spent about $11 billion in 2007 for acquiring the 67% stake in Hutchison Essar, the telecom services provider has struggled with challenges that forced it, in November 2019, to write down the book value of its Indian holdings to zero. While the Indian operation has gained size and market share including through its merger with the erstwhile Idea Cellular — from, respectively, 44 million subscribers in 2007 to 305 million users, and 26.7% at the end of June — there have been continued losses in the face of intense competition and unviable tariffs. Add to the mix the substantial sum of money it owes the government in the form of adjusted gross revenue dues and the future fund requirements of a rapidly technologically evolving and highly capital intensive industry, Vodafone’s wariness to commit more equity to the Indian venture becomes understandable. The government must not seek to litigate the matter any further. The cost of doing otherwise will surely be bruisingly high, especially at a time when Prime Minister Narenda Modi spares no opportunity to woo foreign investment. Any failure to learn a salutary lesson from this loss would only serve to undermine overseas investors’ faith in India’s commitment to international treaties and the rule of law.

Extradition is the official transfer or delivery of a person from one country to another, so that the formal authority over the person shifts to the country where the person is transferred. The person who is transferred is either someone who is accused of a crime or a convicted criminal in the country to which he is being delivered. The crime for which the person is being transferred should also be a crime under the law of the country which is transferring the person. A country shall make a request to another country to extradite a person so that the requesting country can appropriately deal with his crimes. An extradition request for an accused can be initiated in the case of under-investigation, under-trial and convicted criminals. The Extradition Act, 1962 regulates the extradition of fugitive criminals to and from India. A fugitive criminal is a person who is accused or convicted of an extradition offence in a foreign country. An extradition treaty is an agreement or arrangement made by India with a foreign country relating to the extradition of fugitive criminals. Currently, we have extradition treaties with 43 countries. It is possible for India to make an extradition request to any country. If we have an extradition treaty with another country, the foreign country has an obligation to consider our extradition request. If we don’t have an extradition arrangement in place, the foreign country may consider our request keeping in mind its domestic laws and procedures. In relation to a foreign country with whom India has an extradition treaty or agreement, the meaning of an extradition offence is defined in the treaty itself. In other cases, an extradition offence can be any offence for which the punishment is imprisonment for at least one year under the laws of India, or the laws of a foreign country. Requests for extradition on behalf of India can only be made by the Ministry of External Affairs, which formally submits the request for extradition to the respective foreign country through diplomatic channels. Extradition is not available at the request of members of the public. India allows Indian nationals to be extradited to foreign countries from India. However, in doing this, our country follows a dual system based on reciprocity. The concept of extradition advances the principle that no person should escape the reach of the law merely by using influence, power and finances to take refuge in a foreign jurisdiction.

India and UK are negotiating an extradition of Vijay Mallya, from UK to India. Where can the meaning of an extradition offence be found, for the purpose of the said extradition?

Vodafone Group Plc has won yet another round in its 13-year-long battle with India’s tax authorities. On Friday, an international arbitration tribunal ruled that the Indian government’s efforts to claim more than ₹20,000 crore in tax (including related interest and penalties) from Vodafone using retrospective legislation was in clear breach of the ‘fair and equitable treatment’ protections afforded under Article 4(1) of the Bilateral Investment Treaty between India and the Netherlands. The ruling upholding the British multinational’s stand ought to end India’s protracted and often perverse pursuit of what at the very outset was a highly contentious claim. The dispute began in September 2007 when tax authorities served a demand on Vodafone International Holdings BV for tax that it said Vodafone’s Dutch unit ought to have withheld while acquiring the controlling stake in the erstwhile Hutchison Essar Ltd. from Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd. Since the stake purchase transaction took place outside India between two overseas entities, Vodafone was emphatic from the start that it was not liable for any tax relating to the deal. Following a setback at the Bombay High Court, Vodafone presented its position to the Supreme Court, which ruled in its favour in 2012. In a move, fraught with implications for all its international investment treaties, the government of the day, however, amended the tax legislation to give retrospective effect to its claims. This was the trigger for the U.K.-based company to seek arbitral recourse.

For Vodafone, the legal win is at best a pyrrhic victory. After having spent about $11 billion in 2007 for acquiring the 67% stake in Hutchison Essar, the telecom services provider has struggled with challenges that forced it, in November 2019, to write down the book value of its Indian holdings to zero. While the Indian operation has gained size and market share including through its merger with the erstwhile Idea Cellular — from, respectively, 44 million subscribers in 2007 to 305 million users, and 26.7% at the end of June — there have been continued losses in the face of intense competition and unviable tariffs. Add to the mix the substantial sum of money it owes the government in the form of adjusted gross revenue dues and the future fund requirements of a rapidly technologically evolving and highly capital intensive industry, Vodafone’s wariness to commit more equity to the Indian venture becomes understandable. The government must not seek to litigate the matter any further. The cost of doing otherwise will surely be bruisingly high, especially at a time when Prime Minister Narenda Modi spares no opportunity to woo foreign investment. Any failure to learn a salutary lesson from this loss would only serve to undermine overseas investors’ faith in India’s commitment to international treaties and the rule of law.