Anushka Sharma opted to redirect her petition challenging dues of over Rs. 2 crore under the Maharashtra Value Added Tax (MVAT) Act, after a nudge from the Bombay high court on March 30. She will now have to appeal before a joint commissioner (appeals), MVAT, and deposit 10% of the tax demand, to be heard. She had challenged the March 2021 order of Rs. 1.20 crore dues pertaining to assessment year 2012-13 and similar orders for three more assessment years.
In her petition, Anushka said, she had “not sold copyright” of her performances and hence sales tax could not be levied. She sought quashing of the assessment orders. On March 30, her counsel, Deepak Bapat, submitted before a bench of Justices Nitin Jamdar and Abhay Ahuja that “the tax can be levied only if it is established that her performances are her copyright”. He argued that she held performance rights, but a bundle of rights vesting in a creator of original work and under the agreements executed with her talent manager did not amount to copyright.
The bench said, “interpretation of agreement is all a question of facts, and enquiry has to be done in the statutory appeal remedy that law provided” and everyone couldn’t go straight to the HC on facts of the case. The state sales tax department had sought dismissal of Anushka’s petition on the ground that she should’ve first gone to the appellate body — the joint commissioner — and could invoke jurisdiction of the high court only if exceptional circumstances were made out. It pointed out that there were no such exceptions in her case, and she was the first holder of copyright in her artistic performances, which she had transferred, amounting to a sale and hence had to pay VAT.