Taxability of judicial salary upheld where salary receipts remained assessable under the head "Salaries" despite no conventional employer-employee link.

Salary received by a High Court Judge was treated as taxable under the head "Salaries" despite the argument that no conventional employer-employee relationship existed. The Tribunal applied the section 14 classification scheme to all income and held that section 15 is not defeated merely because the payer cannot be identified as an employer in the ordinary sense. It read "employer" in section 15 broadly to avoid excluding clearly salary income from taxation, and noted that tax had in fact been deducted at source, supporting its characterisation as taxable salary receipts. The assessee's challenge was therefore rejected.

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Issues: Whether the salary received by a High Court Judge was taxable under the head "Salaries" notwithstanding the contention that there was no employer-employee relationship.

Analysis: The Tribunal held that the classification scheme under section 14 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 applies to all income, and that section 15 is not defeated merely because the recipient of salary cannot be identified with a conventional employer in the ordinary sense. It reasoned that the legislative intent was to tax salary receipts that are otherwise clearly salary income, and that the word "employer" in section 15 cannot be given a narrow technical meaning so as to exclude such receipts from taxation. The Tribunal also noted that tax had in fact been deducted at source from the salary, reinforcing its treatment as taxable salary income.

Conclusion: The salary of the High Court Judge was held to be taxable under the head "Salaries", and the assessee's contention was rejected.

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