New Delhi: In a major setback to Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan, the Supreme Court today ruled that the 73 year old actor will be investigated over his earnings during the quiz show Kaun Banega Crorepati.
A bench comprising Justices Ranjan Gogoi and PC Pant quashed the 2012 Bombay High Court order that had allowed Bachchan a tax exemption of Rs 1.66 crore for being an artist on the show.
The Supreme Court had earlier on January 8 sought the superstar's response on a petition by the Income Tax Department, which claimed that the actor owes to it Rs 1.66 crore as taxes on his income he earned through the quiz show during 2001-02.
Earlier in 2008, the High Court had allowed I-T exemption on 30 per cent of Bachchan's total income of Rs 50.92 crore from the show.
The High Court had accepted the actor's plea that being an artiste he should be given tax relief under Section 80 RR of the Income-Tax Act.
The Income Tax department had in its appeal challenged the order on the ground that the relief is for those artists, who either earn by performing outside the country or receive payment from foreign agencies.
Bachchan’s name recently figured among the 500 Indians in a massive leak of 11.5 million tax documents exposing their secret offshore dealings.
An investigation into the documents by more than 100 media groups, described as one of the largest such probes in history, revealed the hidden offshore dealings in the assets of world leaders, businessmen, sports person and celebrities.
