24-Oct-2018: Cabinet approves appointment of Adjudicating Authority and establishment of Appellate Tribunal under Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act, 1988

The Union Cabinet has approved the appointment of Adjudicating Authority and establishment of Appellate Tribunal under Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act(PBPT), 1988.

Salient Features:

  • Appointment of an Adjudicating Authority, along with the three additional Benches and to establish the Appellate Tribunal under the PBPT Act;
  • To provide the officers and employees to Adjudicating Authority, Benches of the Adjudicating Authority and Appellate Tribunal by diverting the existing posts at the same level/rank from the Income Tax Dept./Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT);
  • The Adjudicating Authority and Appellate Tribunal shall sit in the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCTD). Benches of Adjudicating Authority may sit in Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai, and the necessary notification in this regard shall be issued after making consultation with the Chairperson of the proposed Adjudicating Authority.

Benefits: The approval will result in effective and better administration of cases referred to the Adjudicating Authority and speedy disposal of appeals filed against the order of the Adjudicating Authority before the Appellate Tribunal.

Appointment of the Adjudicating Authority would provide first stage review of administrative action under the PBPT Act. Establishment of the proposed Appellate Tribunal would provide an appellate mechanism for the order passed by the Adjudicating Authority under the PBPT Act.

23-Mar-2018: No minority status to educational institutions on Linguistic basis

National Commission for Minorities Educational Institutions (NCMEI) under the Ministry of Human Resource Development gives the minority status to the educational institutions on the basis of six religious communities notified by the Ministry of HRD under the NCMEI Act, 2004, viz., Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Zoroastrians (Parsis) and Jains only. Linguistic Minorities do not come under the ambit of the NCMEI Act, 2004. Hence question of empowering any Agency to issue minority certificate on linguistic basis does not arise.

17-Apr-2017: 31st Meeting of the Central Consumer Protection Council

Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, has said that the government is working on mechanism to stop adulteration in packaged water.

Department of Consumer Affairs has requested FSSAI to prepare a low cost testing machine which can be useful to check adulteration in various food products.

Department of Consumer Affairs will launch 6 Regional Consumer Helpline in next 3 months. State Governments have been requested to provide necessary support for establishment of Regional Consumer Helpline. The department will organize Consumer Awareness Yatra involving the States/UTs and the voluntary consumer organisations from 15th August 2017 to 24th December 2017.

The topics discussed in the meeting included the points put forth by the Members on challenges in combating adulteration, strengthening the enforcement machinery and testing Infrastructure, training and capacity Building of all stakeholders, consumer advocacy, capacity building of Panchayati Raj Institutions and other Rural Development Functionaries to spread consumer awareness in the rural areas, setting up a Regulatory Authority for E-Commerce and National Consumer Awareness Yatra.

Suggestions from the Members were also sought on issues like service charges being charged by hotels and restaurants, awareness on wastage of food, legal metrology activities such as sale at less than MRP, Jagrook Grahak Kendra and rising awareness, issues related to food adulteration and fake and spurious goods.

The Officers from the Central Government Regulatory Agencies including FSSAI, BIS and officers from State Governments and representatives from Voluntary Consumer Organisations participated in the meeting.

The Central Council emphasized that the Working Groups constituted with its members should continue working on issues affecting the consumers and make recommendations/suggestions for consideration of the Government.