Bharti Cellular Ltd.Now Bharti Airtel ... vs Assistant C.I.T Circle 57

insc-2024-148 Supreme Court of India 28 February 2024 • CIVIL APPEAL NO. 7257 OF 2011 • 46 min read

Judges (2)

Parties (2)

Case Significance

Bharti Cellular Ltd.Now Bharti Airtel ... vs Assistant C.I.T Circle 57 is a Supreme Court of India decision dated February 28, 2024 (citation: insc-2024-148). This batch of appeals concerned whether cellular mobile service providers were liable to deduct TDS under Section 194-H of the Income Tax Act on the income component in payments received by their distributors/franchisees from third-party customers. The High Courts of Delhi and Calcutta had held the assessees liable while Rajasthan, Karnataka, and Bombay High Courts held otherwise. The Supreme Court held that Section 194-H was not applicable as the distributors were not agents of the telecom c The bench comprised Justices S.V.N. Bhatti and Sanjiv Khanna. The judgment was delivered by Justice Sanjiv Khanna.

Summary

This batch of appeals concerned whether cellular mobile service providers were liable to deduct TDS under Section 194-H of the Income Tax Act on the income component in payments received by their distributors/franchisees from third-party customers. The High Courts of Delhi and Calcutta had held the assessees liable while Rajasthan, Karnataka, and Bombay High Courts held otherwise. The Supreme Court held that Section 194-H was not applicable as the distributors were not agents of the telecom companies in the restricted sense used in the Act, and the telecom companies had no obligation to deduct TDS on such payments.

What was the outcome of Bharti Cellular Ltd.Now Bharti Airtel ... vs Assistant C.I.T Circle 57?

This batch of appeals concerned whether cellular mobile service providers were liable to deduct TDS under Section 194-H of the Income Tax Act on the income component in payments received by their dist...

Judgment

Read the full judgment on the official India Courts portal.

Read on Indian Kanoon

Source: Indian Kanoon (insc-2024-148)