K.C. Suresh vs Director of Lotteries and Others

K.A. Nayak, J.—The petitioner''s case is that he was lucky in a lottery but unlucky with the Income-lax Department. He purchased a lottery ticket, Jai Mathrubhumi lottery ticket Number JK 242705, from the fourth respondent. He was the lucky winner to gel the first prize which carries rupees five lakhs and a new Maruti car. Hut when he received the money, he got only an amount of Rs. 1,47,803.50 as against the announced prize. That was because of the deduction made by the respondents applying the provision of Section 194B of the Income Tax Act, 1961. He has no case that the Department made a mistake in computing the amount of Income Tax. His case is that tax ought not to have been collected in respect of the Maruti car treating it as income. The definition of income includes not only money payment but also the value of any benefit or perquisite, whether convertible into money or not and, therefore, the deduction made by the Income Tax Department cannot be challenged. If there is any dispute relating to quantification, it is for him to take up the matter in appeal before the appropriate authority. I find no ground to admit this original petition.

The original petition is dismissed.