New Delhi: A recent Supreme Court case regarding whistleblowers’ right to be appropriately rewarded has put the spotlight on India’s leading video news agency ANI in a matter of tax evasion. The Supreme Court recently directed the Union Ministry of Finance to reconsider the amount of reward to be given to a person who informed the agencies about alleged tax evasion by ANI.
The whistleblower had moved the top court alleging that he was not paid his legitimate reward by the finance ministry despite the fact that his information about ANI turned out to be correct and which forced the news agency to clear its tax dues. The appellant complained that he had informed the tax sleuths that ANI had not paid its service tax dues of around Rs 2.59 crores.
His information was used to send a non-compliance notice to the ANI, following which the news agency cleared its pending taxes. However, the appellant contended that he was paid only Rs 5.50 lakhs as a reward for his information, despite the fact that he was entitled to get Rs 51.80 lakhs according to clause 4.1 of the “Reward to Informers” policy issued by the revenue department of the Union finance ministry.
Clause 4.1 of the policy states that whistleblowers are entitled to get up to 20% of the amount of tax evaded and fines and penalties imposed on the defaulters. The appellant had moved the Bombay high court in 2015 but received an unfavourable order from the court. He moved the Supreme Court later, which has now said that the...
Images of the Whitegate fuel protests earlier this month were altered to make it appear gardaí were violent towards protesters. The AI-doctored images were shared widely online, including by inter...