A chartered accountant has been found guilty of misconduct by the Council of the Institute of C.A. for writing a book entitled Tax Planning for Secret Income (Black Money) as the book inter alia gives an impression that chartered accountants are experts at suggesting ways for generating black money. The Gujarat High Court has upheld the finding of the Institute and has been of the view that permanent removal of his name from the Institute is clearly warranted. However, because of factors such as his age, health, the long period of time that has elapsed and his statement that he has never published any such writing after the publication of his book, the High Court has directed his name be removed from membership for a period of five years (Council of Institute of C.A., New Delhi vs P.C. Parekh).

In a matrimonial suit the husband made a prayer for directing the wife to undergo a virginity test in order to disprove her contention that the marriage had not been consummated. The Punjab and Haryana High Court held that the question of virginity was not an issue in the said case and the wife’s virginity cannot be the sole factor in proving consummation of marriage. The court further held that allowing such examination would violate her right to privacy as enshrined under Article 21 (Surjit Singh Thind vs Kanwaljit Kaur).

Does displaying one’s company’s logo on company vehicles along with the description of services provided amount to advertisement? J.K. Industries introduced a service of delivering tyres and allied services to its customers. The Delhi Municipal Corporation refused to grant a no-objection certificate for displaying the company logo JK TYRE DIAL-A-TYRE on its vehicles to be used for such services. Such a refusal was challenged before the Delhi High Court. The High Court held that if only the logo along with services rendered are displayed on the van which is carrying on such services, there is no violation of by-laws or regulations of advertisements. Under the circumstances, there is no question of granting any licence so far as the vehicles utilise the tyre of the petitioner (J.K. Industries vs MCD & Others).

SOLON