Chartered Accountant
1575 Points
Joined December 2008
Sec 37 of Chapter IV D of the IT Act provides that any penalty paid for infraction of law is disallowed. But penalty paid for breach of any contract in the ordinary course of business is allowable as deduction.
Once can argue that since there is no specific provision under the head Income From Salary which allows deduction for the same, no deduction is allowable [mind it.. there is no specifice provision which disallows either]. However, there is no specific case law which deals with this issue, as far as my knowledge is concerned.
If the assessee wanna fight, he can argue that the payment made for breach of contract is for earning other source of income [i.e., from the employment he will undertake on termination] and, hence is allowable.
This is my view point.