The Judiciary is Independent, But Are We?

(Also read one of our previous article on 'Homosexuality In Legality' written by Shashank Sahay )

The newspapers and social networking sites are overflowing with criticism of the Supreme Court's decision Suresh Kumar Koushal & Anr. v. NAZ Foundation & Ors., which has upheld the constitutional validity of section 377 of the Indian Penal Code and upheld the illegality of homosexual intercourse.

I am reminded an incident which took place in my first year of law school. I was attending a guest lecture on 'Constitutional Jurisprudence' by the then sitting  Hon'ble Supreme Court Judge, Justice Markandey Katju. During the Q&A session, one of my professors asked the Hon'ble Judge why the judiciary was not doing anything substantial to tackle the problem of the corrupt politicians and MPs. Justice Katju shot him down immediately (not literally), "It is you who vote for these people, it is you who put them in power, and then you come crying to the courts!", Justice Katju shouted.

Section 50C of ITA not applicable to transfer of Immovable Property held through Co.

In Irfan Abdul Kader Fazlani vs. ACIT (ITAT Mumbai) (Entire order available here) the assessee was the shareholder of a company called Kamala Mansion Pvt. Ltd (KMPL). KMPL owned flats in a building known as Om Vikas Apartments, located at Walkeshwar Road, Mumbai- 400 026. The assessee sold the shares for a sum of approximately  Rupees Thirty Seven Lakhs and Fifty One Thousand Only and capital gains were offered on that basis. The AO & CIT(A) held that by the sale of shares in the company, the assessee had in actual fact transferred the immovable property belonging to him, and it was merely an indirect way of transferring the flats, for lesser consideration