Supreme Court Refuses Tata Play Plea Against UP Entertainment Tax Demand On DTH Revenue
Kirit Singhania
7 May 2026 6:04 PM IST
The top court, however, protected it from coercive recovery proceedings for two weeks.
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a writ petition filed by Tata Play Limited challenging entertainment tax demands raised by the Uttar Pradesh government on its DTH subscription revenues. However, it granted the company protection from coercive recovery proceedings for two weeks.
A Bench of Justices Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha and Alok Aradhe said it was not inclined to entertain the petition filed under Article 32 of the Constitution. The court directed that no coercive steps be taken against Tata Play for two weeks.
“While we are not inclined to entertain this writ petition filed under Article 32 of the Constitution, we direct that no coercive steps shall be taken against the petitioner for a period of two weeks from today" the court observed.
The Bench clarified that it had not expressed any opinion on the merits of the matter.
Tata Play, formerly known as Tata Sky Limited, had challenged assessment orders dated February 10, 2016 and January 12, 2018, along with a demand letter dated April 22, 2026 issued by the Commissioner, State Tax, Uttar Pradesh.
The company, in its plea, argued that the impugned demands levied entertainment tax on the entertainment tax component itself and on the embedded service tax component in subscriber payments, resulting in a “tax on tax.”
It contended that the State lacked legislative competence to levy entertainment tax on service tax components embedded in the aggregate payment received from subscribers.
According to the petition, the Uttar Pradesh authorities demanded over Rs.161 crore along with interest and sought recovery as arrears of land revenue within one week.
Tata Play further argued that while the Supreme Court in State of Kerala v. Asianet Satellite Communications Pvt. Ltd. upheld the constitutional validity of entertainment tax on DTH services in 2025, the issue of whether entertainment tax could be levied on embedded tax components had been expressly left open.
The Supreme Court dismissed the writ petition while leaving Tata Play free to pursue remedies available in accordance with law.
For Petitioner: Senior Advocates K.K. Venugopal, Krishnan Venugopal with Advocates Mahesh Agarwal, Rishi Agrawala, Kamaldeep Dayal, Victor Das, Vipul Singh, Anwesha Padhi, Chinmayee Chandra, Umang Motiyani, Avinash Mathews, E. C. Agrawala, AOR
For Respondent: Advocates Bhakti Vardhan Singh, Narendra Kumar Pandey