Delhi high court stays service tax on lawyers

The Delhi high court on Friday stayed the Centre's notification imposing service tax on practising lawyers. The court also issued notices to the Centre, the service tax commissioner, Central Board of Excise and Customs and sought their replies by Monday.

A division bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Sanjiv Khanna passed the order on an application of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) seeking a stay on the collection of service tax from the practising lawyers.

Appearing for the lawyers, senior advocate Pinky Anand submitted that Finance Act levying tax on the lawyers is violative of fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution.

"Grave and irreparable harm, injury and prejudice would be caused to the lawyers if the central government was permitted to enforce the provisions of the Financial Act and levy tax thereunder," she argued.

The central government had on April 25 issued a notification imposing 10% tax on the fee charged by lawyers for their services, which came into force from May 1.

Earlier, while hearing a petition by the Delhi High Court Bar Association (DHCBA) on the similar issue, the bench has sought a response from the government which would come up for hearing on Monday.