SC admits plea for allowing tax exemption on the expenses incurred for heart surgery

The Supreme Court on Monday admitted a special leave petition filed by former Union Law Minister and senior counsel Shanti Bhushan for treating his heart as a “plant” for the purpose of granting him income tax wavier on expenses incurred on heart surgery.

A bench of justices D K Jain and A R Dave said since an interesting question of law on the status of human heart for the purpose of tax calculation has arisen, it would examine the issue at length.

Bhushan and counsel Rohit Kumar Singh appeared on behalf of him.

Section 31 of the Income Tax Act provides for grant of deduction in levy of income tax if the expenses incurred are on “repairs and insurance of machinery, plant and furniture.”

The Delhi High Court had earlier dismissed Bhushan’s plea for granting him tax exemption on the expenses incurred for the heart surgery undergone by him in December 1978 in Houston in the USA.

The senior advocate, in his petition, claimed the cost on his surgery, which was conducted after he suffered a heart attack in December 1978, be treated as cost incurred in repairing a plant as “the repair of his vital organ was directly related to his professional competence.”

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