Senior advocate Soli Dastur, doing some fine hair-combing on the draft of the scheme which seeks to unlock five lakh cases pending in various stages in the country, put the chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes, Ravi Kant in an uncomfortable spot.

Dastur pointed out that litigation was also unnecessarily increasing because of either bad drafting or officers taking an obtuse view of the law, refusing to see the simple facts as they were.

Dastur said, under the scheme the Designated Authority (DA) can amend a certificate of declaration, and there are no guidelines on how he would do so. The subsection should clarify what amendments these would be, otherwise it would be a very wide power.