Current Affairs Question - 18 June 2020

Explanation :

• The Ninth Schedule contains a list of central and state laws which cannot be challenged in courts and was added by the Constitution (First Amendment) Act, 1951.
• It was created by the new Article 31B, which along with Article 31A was brought in by the government to protect laws related to agrarian reform and for abolishing the Zamindari system.
• The First Amendment added 13 laws to the Schedule. Subsequent amendments in 1955, 1964, 1971, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1984, 1990, 1994, and 1999 have taken the number of protected laws to 284.

Article 31A and 31 B

• While Article 31A extends protection to ‘classes’ of laws, A. 31B shields specific laws or enactments.
• Article 31B also has retrospective operation: meaning if laws are inserted in the Ninth Schedule after they are declared unconstitutional, they are considered to have been in the Schedule since their commencement, and thus valid.
• Although Article 31B excludes judicial review, the apex court has said in the past that even laws under the Ninth Schedule would be open to scrutiny if they violated fundamental rights or the basic structure of the Constitution.

Explanation :

• GST Council is an apex member committee to modify, reconcile or to procure any law or regulation based on the context of goods and services tax in India.
• It is a constitutional body under Article 279A.
• It was introduced by the Constitution (One Hundred and First Amendment) Act, 2016.

Structure

According to the article, GST Council will be a joint forum for the Centre and the States. It consists of the following members:

• The Union Finance Minister will be the Chairperson
• As a member, the Union Minister of State will be in charge of Revenue of Finance
• The Minister in charge of finance or taxation or any other Minister nominated by each State government, as members.

Functions

• The GST Council dictates tax rate, tax exemption, the due date of forms, tax laws, and tax deadlines, keeping in mind special rates and provisions for some states.
• The predominant responsibility of the GST Council is to ensure to have one uniform tax rate for goods and services across the nation.