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In Budget 2016, Arun Jaitley said that the 'Clean Energy Cess' levied on coal, lignite and peat has now been renamed as 'Clean Environment Cess'. "Its incidence has been increased to Rs 400 per metric tonne, from Rs 200 per metric tonne," he said. (Reuters)
Sebi-Sahara row: Signalling its zero-tolerance for defiance of orders, the top court sent Sahara chief Subrata Roy and its two directors to Tihar Jail in a decision unprecedented in corporate annals. While the trio was arrested on February 26 for not refunding investors’ money, they continue to be in jail as the group is still trying to raise R10,000 crore to secure their bail. (Reuters) 
CBI chief’s recusal: Former CBI director Ranjit Sinha faced the biggest embarrassment in the twilight of his professional career when the top court asked him to recuse from the 2G spectrum and coal allocation scam probes after observing that the charge against him of protecting some accused appeared to be ‘prima facie credible’. The new CBI director Anil Sinha was allowed to reassume the supervisory roles in the cases. Freeing the premier agency from the government’s clutches, the top court ruled that CBI would not have to take prior approval of government before probing and prosecuting top bureaucrats in court-monitored cases. (AP) -
Black money: Forcing the Centre to make public more names of those who have unaccounted money in foreign banks, the apex court asked the Centre to take effective steps to bring back black money. While refusing to review its decision to appoint an SIT to look into all such cases, it slammed the Modi government for toeing the UPA’s line that it cannot reveal names of account holders as it would violate terms of Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements entered into with various nations. (Reuters)
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Saradha scam: In May, the Supreme Court ordered CBI to take over probe in the R2,000 crore Saradha scam in which about 25 lakh gullible investors were duped of their hard earned money by the group. So far, CBI has registered six cases against Saradha, 44 cases in Odisha against the other chit-fund companies and four more cases in West Bengal against non-Saradha chit-fund companies. (PTI)
Corruption cases: Among the politicians, former Tamil Nadu CM J Jayalalithaa got interim bail in the assets case which was later extended by four months by the court, which also asked the Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court to set up a special bench to decide her plea within three months. But, before her conviction by a trial court in Karnataka, the AIADMK supremo made several attempts to stall criminal proceedings. (PTI)
