The author, a former Vice-President of the Tribunal & now a practicing advocate, explains why the retrospective amendments proposed in the Finance Bill 2012 may not meet the test of law. He also points out that retrospective amendments to reverse settled principles of law result in enormous harassment for the tax payer and send out an adverse message to citizens & foreign investors that the India does not play fair

Leading Industrialist Rahul Bajaj has suggested that to tempt black money hoarders to bring their billions of unaccounted money stashed abroad into India, a carrot-and-stick approach should be adopted. The hoarders should be offered an Amensty Scheme as an inducement to bring the money into india and as a threat they should be told that they will otherwise be sent to jail and their money will be confiscated

Jaithirth Rao, renowned entrepreneur, expresses deep anguish at the arbitrary manner in which the income-tax department is harassing Global BPO companies and raising bogus tax demands, forcing them to relocate their operations to foreign countries like the Philippines & China. This short-sighted approach of the income-tax department will ruin the Indian economy, he warns

Eminent Senior Advocate Shri. Dinesh Vyas expresses anguish at the covert manner in which the retrospective amendments to nullify the judgement of the Supreme Court in Vodafone International vs. UOI were introduced in the Finance Bill 2012 without any reference being made to it in the Finance Minister’s Budget speech. Given the size & significance of the issue, the lapse of the Finance Minister is deliberate and a failure of national governance standards, he says, and adds that the Government’s clumsy attempt to change the law has caused, amongst big-ticket foreign investors, a loss of faith in India as a reliable investment destination

Shri. Sudhir Chandra, former Chairman of the CBDT, sends out a powerful emotive appeal that letting MNCs like Vodafone escape without paying tax on the trillions of dollars that they earned from India will wreck the Indian economy and spell havoc for the common man. He rues the misconception because of which the common man treats the tax evaders as heros and the tax department as villans

Eminent Senior Advocate Mr. S. E. Dastur considers whether the retrospective amendments proposed in the Finance Bill 2012 to nullify the Supreme Court’s verdict in Vodafone International are constitutional and achieve their purpose. He opines that the provisions are unreasonable & arbitrary and explains why they may not stand up to challenge

With 20 years of experience in judicial office, Justice Easwar explains why some Judges are able to inspire confidence in the minds of the litigants. A Judge is like God and must develop sterling qualities to be able to occupy the high office. These qualities must be cultivated by everyone who aspires to the position of a Judge says Justice Easwar

Hon’ble Shri. D. Manmohan uses his vast experience as a lawyer & Judge to explain how a judgement should be written. He cites the example of Vodafone International vs. UOI as a ‘model’ judgement for the way it has been structured. He also gives several other examples of judgements written by Lord Denning, Krishna Reddy & other Law Lords and emphasizes that Judges must use simple and clear language in their judgements

Prashant Bhushan launches a scathing criticism of the Vodafone verdict and argues that India will be seen as a “banana republic” where foreign companies can loot our resources and even avoid paying taxes on their windfall gains from the sale of those resources