TATA WORKERS UNION Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BY this common judgment, we propose to dispose of the abovementioned batch of writ applications wherein the vires and legality of Notification No. S. O. 940(E), dated September 25, 2001 (see [2001] 251 ITR (St.) 81), has been challenged. Vide this impugned notification, the Central Board of Direct Taxes, Department of Revenue, Government of India in the Ministry of Finance, has brought about an amendment in the Income-tax Rules, 1962. We are concerned in this batch of petitions only with respect to the substitution of new rule 3 with the old one.

(2.) THE impugned notification has been assailed mainly on two grounds. Firstly that it gives arbitrary and unfettered powers to the Revenue because computation of the perquisite on the basis of the percentage of the salary (10 per cent of salary and 7.5 per cent, of salary) as occurring in column 3 of the Table has no nexus with the object sought to be achieved and is not based on an intelligible differentia. It has also been argued and urged that there can be cases where the houses allotted to the employees by the employer may be such lower rental that 10 per cent. or even 7.5 per cent. of the salary may be considered to be very much on the higher side.

(3.) THE impugned amendment was brought about as a consequence of the Budget Speech by the Finance Minister in Parliament. In the Budget Speech the Finance Minister very pertinently observed that the Revenue had been facing some difficulties in the past with respect to the assessment and computation of the perquisites relating to the accommodation.