Good news for the 'Sacred Games' actor Saif Ali Khan as he had a legal order in his favour from the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) in the context of the notional rent for a vacant apartment the actor owns. The ITAT accepted the actor's plea that he could not rent out his 6,000 sq feet apartment in Hicon Residency, a luxurious building in Bandra, due to certain defects in the flat's construction that were not as per the approved plan.

Against a taxable rent of 50 lakh rs determined by the Commissioner (Appeals), the ITAT accepted Rs 11.8 lakh the actor had offered to tax based on a valuation report. 

The I-T Act provides for a vacancy allowance, covering a situation where the intention is to let out the property but it remains vacant for the whole or part of the financial year. The bench, in its order dated August 21, stressed that Pataudi's plea before the tax tribunal "cannot be said to be spurious, vexatious, mere bluster or frivolous".

Under the I-T Act, where an individual owns more than one house, he/she can treat any one of the residential properties as "self-occupied" and exempt from tax. The actor also submitted that the property was too large to be let out and he might have to spend 50 lakhs to split the flat into three.