Her remedy would involve her now going in appeal before a joint commissioner (appeals), MVAT and depositing 10 percent of the tax demand made on her, to be heard. The tax demand is in excess of Rs 2 crore.
The Actor, 34, had filed petitions to challenge a March 2021 order to pay dues of тВ╣1.23 crore for assessment year 2012-13 under the MVAT Act and in all challenged similar orders for three assessment years. She has тАЬnot sold тАШcopy rightтАЩ and hence sales tax on it cannot be leviedтАЩтАЩ her petition argued and sought that the HC quash the assessment orders.
On Thursday her counsel Deepak Bapat submitted before a bench of Justices Nitin Jamdar and Abhay Ahuja that тАЬthe tax can be levied only if established that her performance are her copyrights.тАЩтАЩ He said she held performance rights but under the definition of copyrightтАФa bundle of rights vesting in a creator of original work including literary, artistic worksтАФunder the agreements executed with her talent manager it did not amount to copyright.
The bench said, тАЬwhen it entails factual enquiry, interpretation of agreement is all question of facts and enquiry has to be done in the statutory appeal remedy that law provided,” The HC said, else everyone would come to the HC straight away on facts of each case adding whether or not the interpretation given by the State in its reply is correct or not will have to be seen.
The State Sales Tax, Large Taxpayers department on Wednesday had sought dismissal of her petition and said should under the law first go before the appeal bodyтАФthe joint commissionerтАФas provided by law and can invoke jurisdiction of HC right away only if exceptional circumstances are made out. There were no such exceptions in her case, said the State and also said under the Copyrights Act she was the first holder of copyright in her artistic performances which she transferredтАФamounting to a sale and hence she was justified in asking to pay the VAT.
тАЬAnushka Sharma is Actor by profession. A Copyright is created in her every artistic performance, which is video recorded by various clients and used for commercial purposesтАж like advertisement, entertainment etc. during the period of agreement,тАЩтАЩ the State affidavit submitted by state lawyer Jyoti Chavan had said.
The HC however, kept open all issues her counsel Bapat raised on the interpretation of тАШcopyrightтАЩ under the tax statute and that she held no such intellectual property right in the agreements that the department took action on.