Raising doubts over the Mayawati government’s special development zone policy granting tax exemptions on various activities associated with infrastructure projects, the Supreme Court on Friday directed the Jaypee group to deposit 25 per cent of the ticket collection from Formula-1 race in a separate account till the validity of entertainment tax exemption is decided on the parameters of public interests.
Brushing aside Jaypee counsel Mukul Rohtagi’s contention that such an order would send a wrong signal about the motor sport being organised for the first time in India, a bench of Justices D K Jain and A R Dave said the court was not against the sport as such but wanted to examine the constitutional validity of UP government’s special development zone (SDZ) policy of 2007.
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NGO Navdanya party to case against bio firm
AGE CORRESPONDENT
NEW DELHI, Oct. 21
Navdanya has become a party to the anti-trust law filed by the Andhra Pradesh state government against Monsanto, a biotech company.
Explaining the reasons for the intervention, Vandana Shiva, director of NGO Navdanya, said, “The Andhra Pradesh state government had passed a seed law insisting that the price of Bt cotton must be regulated. Monsanto, however, argued that government cannot intervene in this matter since this amounts to regulating a technology trait.’