Mp High Court Notice To Centre

The Madhya Pradesh High Court has issued notices to the Union finance ministry and others on a petition challenging provisions of the amended Income Tax Act to include free accommodation and interest-free loan as part of earnings.

The Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Bhavani Singh and Justice S L Jain also asked a Neemuch-based cement factory to pay full salary of its employees without assessing the value of perquisites for tax deduction at source.

Hearing a petition filed by Ashok Kumar Sharma of the Cement Shramik Sangh, Neemuch, the court issued notices to the Union finance secretary, the Central Board of Direct Taxes, the commissioner of income tax (Ujjain), the tax recovery officer (Ratlam) and Vikram Cement, a unit of Grasim Industries, and asked them to file their replies in eight weeks.

Petitioner's counsel Aditya Adhikari submitted that the provisions of rule 3(1) and sub-rule 7(10) of the Income Tax Act, 1962, were arbitrary, illegal and in violation of the Constitution.

In another ruling, the high court quashed the tender offer of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), Satna, and imposed a penalty of Rs 5,000 on the department. Hearing a petition filed by Kamendra Singh on August 20, Justice A K Mishra quashed the tender notice and its subsequent proceedings for laying of cable by BSNL, Satna.

Petitioner's counsel R S Jha submitted that BSNL had published the tender offer for laying cable in local newspapers on February 12. The same tender was published in other newspapers with lesser circulation, the next day. He said the court had stayed proceedings in favour of petitioner on May 3 restraining BSNL from allotting work for cable lying in any area.

However, BSNL authorities violated the court order. The court found irregularities in the tender allotment process and directed BSNL to start the process again.