The State of Punjab has moved the Supreme Court against the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s direction to the CBI to register a case on the Enforcement Directorate’s allegations concerning the OSD to the Chief Minister, calling the plea politically motivated.
A seven-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court, led by CJI Surya Kant, has begun hearing a reference made in 1999 in Arjun Flour Mills v. State of Odisha, on whether a State legislature is competent to impose a surcharge, additional tax, levy or cess calculated on the basis of a validly levied sales or purchase tax, or whether such a levy falls outside Entry 54 of the State List and encroaches on the Union’s power to tax income under Entry 82. The Centre submitted that the questions have become largely academic after GST in 2017.
Karnataka Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot has written to Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar advising reconsideration of the State’s September 8 order limiting the singing of Vande Mataram to its first two stanzas at government functions. The Governor contends the order is contrary to the Union’s protocol on the National Song and the 2026 amendment to the national-honour law, and that, under Articles 162, 256 and 257, a State cannot by executive instruction prescribe a version inconsistent with the Union’s on a subject outside its legislative competence.
The Karnataka High Court has deferred, by three weeks, a PIL challenging the State government’s September 8 order limiting the singing of Vande Mataram to its first two stanzas at government functions, after the State pointed out that a related matter, TM Krishna’s challenge to the Centre’s Vande Mataram circular and the 2026 amendment, is pending before the Supreme Court. The petitioner argued that a State cannot decide the content of a national song; the State defended the order as guidance, not a mandate.
The Madras High Court sought responses from the Union and Tamil Nadu governments on a plea challenging the treatment of Tamil Thai Vaazhthu during official functions. The petition questions a Union circular allegedly resulting in the State Song being rendered after Vande Mataram and the National Anthem.
The Supreme Court of India set aside the Madras High Court’s late-evening interim order staying Tamil Nadu laws on Vice-Chancellor appointments, citing denial of adequate hearing to the State.
The apex court remitted the matter back to the High Court for fresh consideration and asked it to decide the case expeditiously within six weeks.
