1993 JMM bribe taxable: Delhi High Court

NEW DELHI: The Delhi HC has held that the money allegedly received by three former JMM MPs and party chief Shibu Soren for voting in favour of the PV Narasimha Rao government in 1993 is liable to be taxed. A bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and V Kameswar Rao set aside the decision of the ITAT that the money received by the JMM MPs was not taxable.

The court pronounced the verdict on an appeal by the income tax department, which challenged the tribunal’s order, saying that the amount paid to Soren and three others was bribe money that was “undisclosed income” and thus taxable. The former MPs, during their trial under the Prevention of Corruption Act, had admitted that they had received money from Congress in for their support to the confidence motion.