5 Australian MPs ousted over dual citizenship
Canberra, May 9: Five Australian parliamentarians were ousted on Wednesday for holding dual citizenship when they were elected. It comes as fresh blow to Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull's majority in the House.
In what was widely viewed as a fresh test case, a high court ruled Senator Katy Gallagher ineligible, the BBC reported.
Four other politicians, who were also under scrutiny resigned after the verdict.
Gallagher and lower house MPs Justine Keay, Josh Wilson and Susan Lamb are members of the opposition Labor party. The fifth MP, Rebekha Sharkie, is part of minor party Centre Alliance.
In 2017, 10 MPs and senators were removed from office for violating a constitutional rule that prohibits federal political candidates from being dual nationals, the BBC report said.
The dual citizenship saga has destabilised Australian politics since July 2017, at times threatening Turnbull's majority in the House of Representatives.
Turnbull could increase his majority if he wins any of the vacant lower house seats, the BBC reported.
Gallagher was aware of her British passport as her father was born in England, so the court ruled that she did not take "all reasonable steps" to relinquish her British links, Xinhua news agency reported.
The High Court of Australia ruled that Gallagher's seat would be filled by counting back votes from the 2016 federal election.
The other politicians are expected be replaced in the same way, or through a by-election.
Gallagher had referred herself to the court in 2017 after questions emerged over whether she had renounced her British citizenship in time to run for office.
"To the people of the (Australian Capital Territory), I'm very sorry that this disruption has occurred to one of your federal representatives," she said on Wednesday.
Labor leader Bill Shorten said three of the ousted MPs would seek re-election.
Shorten said his party had relied on an older interpretation of Section 44(a), a much-debated rule in the constitution, that says members of parliament cannot continue to have citizenship in another country, and must prove they took "all reasonable steps" to renounce the other citizenship before being elected.
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ED searches 'preferred' vendors of Amazon, Flipkart in FEMA probe
New Delhi, Nov 7: The Enforcement Directorate Thursday conducted searches against some of the "main vendors" operating on platforms of e-commerce giants Amazon and Flipkart as part of a foreign direct investment "violation" investigation, official sources said.
A total of 19 premises of these "preferred" vendors located in Delhi, Gurugram and Panchkula (Haryana), Hyderabad (Telangana) and Bengaluru (Karnataka) were covered as part of the action, the sources said.
It is learnt that the ED inspected documents and took copies of some from the premises of about six such vendors who were not named.
The sources said a probe has been initiated by the federal agency under the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) after it received several complaints against the two large e-commerce companies where it is alleged that they were "violating India's FDI (foreign direct investment) rules by directly or indirectly influencing the sale price of goods or services and not providing level playing field for all the vendors".
There was no immediate response from the two e-commerce companies.
The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) welcomed the ED action.
"The CAIT, along with several other trade bodies, has been raising these issues for the past few years. I welcome the Enforcement Directorate's actions as a step in the right direction," CAIT secretary general and BJP MP from Delhi Praveen Khandelwal said in a statement.
He claimed that the Competition Commission of India (CCI) had also issued "penalty notices" to Amazon and Flipkart, and their "preferred" sellers, for "engaging" in anti-competitive practices that have adversely affected small traders and 'kirana' (grocery) stores.
As per existing rules, 100 per cent FDI is allowed through automatic route in the marketplace model of e-commerce. But overseas investment is not permitted in an inventory-based model.
In the market place model, e-commerce entities can only provide a platform for third-party sellers and they cannot own the inventory. They also cannot directly or indirectly influence the price of the goods.
It has been reported in the past that the CCI, which works to ensure fair business practices across sectors in the marketplace, is already looking into alleged anti-competitive ways of e-commerce companies.
The CAIT and mainline mobile retailers' association AIMRA had also petitioned the CCI sometime back seeking immediate suspension of operations of Flipkart and Amazon as they alleged that the companies engaged in predatory pricing and were burning cash to offer heavy discounts on products .
These practices, in turn, are creating a grey market of mobile phones, causing losses to the exchequer "as players in the grey market evade taxes", they had said.
Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal had recently flagged the same concerns as he had questioned Amazon's announcement of USD 1 billion investment in India, saying the US retailer was not doing any great service to the Indian economy but filling up for the losses it had suffered in the country.
He had said in August that their huge losses in India "smells of predatory pricing", which is not good for the country as it impacts crores of small retailers.
Goyal said e-commerce companies were eating into the small retailers' high-value, high-margin products that are the only items through which the mom-and-pop stores survive.
The minister had said that with the fast-growing online retailing in the country, "are we going to cause huge social disruption with this massive growth of e-commerce".
Khandelwal said that the CAIT has urged the CCI and the ED to protect the businesses of small traders.
"In the new Bharat, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi Ji, no one is above the law. I am hopeful that now the law will take its rightful course and protect the livelihoods of small shopkeepers.
"This government is committed to ensuring that no entity can harm the trading community. In response to multiple complaints filed by the trading community regarding FDI violations and the anti-competitive practices of quick-commerce companies such as Blinkit, Swiggy, and Zepto, we urge both the CCI and the ED to take swift action and prevent any further, irreparable damage to the businesses of small traders," he said in the statement.
