The Supreme Court has ruled that stock exchange dues shall have priority over income- tax (I- T) dues in case of a default by a stock exchange member (broker).The remark was made in a two- decade- old case between the BSE and the I- T department over who has the first right to the dues of defaulting member Suresh Damji Shah.The I- T department had in 1995 written to the BSE claiming that the funds received by auctioning the licence of the defaulting member should be handed over to it to settle the tax dues amounting to about ? 25 lakh.

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