No Sales tax on lotteries: Supreme Court

New Delhi, Apr 28: In a major setback to the states getting revenue from lotteries, the Supreme Court today held that lotteries did not come within the definition of goods hence sales tax cannot be imposed on them.

Dismissing a bunch of petitions by the government of national capital territory (NCT) of Delhi and others, a five judge consititutional bench headed by Mrs Justice Ruma Pal directed that today's judgement shall be operative with retrospective effect.

Other judges on the bench were Mrs Justice B N Srikrishna, Mr Justice S H Kapadia, Mr Justice Tarun Chatterjee and Mr Justice P P Naolekar.

The Supreme Court overruled its earlier 1986 judgement which had held that sales tax can be imposed on lottery as it was covered by definition of sales of goods.

UNI