Kunnur Seenivasan, an official of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), has filed a petition with the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court under the recent ruling of the Supreme Court regarding the reservation of the Economically Weaker Section (EWS). Seenivasan has argued that there is no rationale behind the government collecting income tax from people earning more than Rs 2.5 lakhs annually in light of a SC ruling stating that families with gross annual income below Rs 8 lakhs are eligible come as EWS. The Madurai Bench has ordered a notification to the central government regarding the matter.
Through the petition, Seenivasan, an agriculturist and member of DMK’s Assets Protection Council, asked for a portion of the Finance Act 2022, which states that people earning more than Rs 2.5 lakh per annum should pay income tax , they reported as “ultra vires.” Living law.
He referred to the SC’s recent ruling upholding the validity of the 103rd amendment to the Constitution in the case of Janhit Abhiyan vs Union of India. The ruling allowed the government to offer a 10 percent reservation quota for EWS in this case. The eligibility criteria for the EWS category was that the family has a gross income up to the limit of Rs 7,99,999. This being the situation, Seenivasan said that the government should not collect income tax from persons whose income is up to Rs 8 lakhs as they would also be classed as economically weak.
The agriculturist argued that paragraph A in part I of the first schedule of the Finance Act, 2022 by which the government has set the said tax bracket is contrary to Articles 14, 15, 16, 21 and 265 of the Constitution of India .
Four of these five articles mentioned contain the fundamental rights of the citizens of India. In other words, the petition has argued that the government collecting tax from a person who earns Rs 2.50 lakh per annum violates fundamental rights, which the SC guards.
A court judge R Mahadevan and J Sathya Narayana Prasad notified the ministries of Law and Justice, Finance and Human Resources and adjourned the case for two weeks.
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