• Notification Date: 25-11-2022
• Notification No: N/A

Central Government’s Notice regarding Petition on Income Tax Exemption for Income below Rs. 8 Lakhs Per Annum

Kunnur Seenivasan, which is Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) functionary, has filed a petition with the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court. The petition is based on the recent ruling that has been passes by the Supreme Court regarding the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) reservation.  

Seenivasan has appealed that it is not rationale of the government to collect income tax from people earning above Rs 2.5 lakhs yearly. In favour of this appeal, it highlighted a previous SC ruling which states that families with a gross annual income of less than Rs 8 lakhs qualify as EWS. 

In this regard, the Madurai Bench has issued a notice to the Central Government.   

In this petition, agriculturalist Seenivasan and a member of the Assets Protection Council of DMK, has pointed out that portion of the Finance Act 2022, which states people earning above Rs 2.5 lakh annually have to pay income tax. The petition has sought that this portion should be declared as ‘ultra vires’.  

In support of his appeal, he referred to the Supreme Court’s recent judgement in which it held the validity of the 103rd Constitutional Amendment in the Janhit Abhiyan vs Union of India case. The case allowed the government to offer a 10 percent reservation quota for EWS. 

According to the SC’s ruling, the criteria for qualifying under the EWS category was that the family has a gross income up to the limit of Rs 7,99,999. Highlighting this case, Seenivasan said that the government should not collect income tax from those individuals who have annual income up to Rs 8 lakhs, as they would also qualify as economically weak. 

Seenivasan submitted pointed out the Paragraph A in Part-1 of the First Schedule of the Finance Act, 2022. In this portion, the government fixed the mentioned tax slab, violates Articles 14, 15, 16, 21, 265 of the Constitution of India.