The Income Tax Department on Wednesday challenged the order by Bombay High Court in Supreme Court which gave tax relief to Amitabh Bachchan over a case related to his income from a popular TV show Kaun Banega Crorepati.

The apex court has set aside the 2001 Bombay high court order which had ruled in favour of Bachchan.

The judgement was delivered by a Bench comprising Justices Ranjan Gogoi and PC Pant. Senior Advocate Shyam Divan appeared for Amitabh Bachchan, while Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar represented the Income Tax Department.

The Bombay High Court had dismissed the IT department's plea on February 29 last year and allowed Bachchan a tax exemption for being an artist on the show.

The tax claim to the tune of Rs 1.66 crore was made on income earned by Senior Bachchan. Bachchan had shown his income as Rs 3.23 crore, while the Assessing Officer had assessed Bachchan’s income to be around Rs 26 crore, according to reports.

Earlier in 2008, the High Court had allowed I-T exemption on 30% of Bachchan's total income of Rs 50.92 crore from the show.

The High Court had accepted the actor's plea that being an artiste he should be given tax relief under Section 80 RR of the Income-Tax Act.

The Income Tax department had in its appeal challenged the order on the ground that the relief is for those artists, who either earn by performing outside the country or receive payment from foreign agencies.

It was submitted by the Income Tax department that Bachchan was acting as an anchor in the television programme show for Star India Ltd and cannot be termed artiste for his role in the show.

(With Inputs from ANI)