Supreme Court To Hear Plea Challenging GST On Disability Equipments

A writ petition filed challenging the levy of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on disability equipments was mentioned before the Supreme Court on Friday.

The writ petition Nipun Malhotra versus Union of India was filed in 2017. Advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai mentioned before a bench led by Justice DY Chandrachud that in 2020, the Court had granted the petitioner liberty to move a representation before the GST Council seeking waiver of GST on disability equipments. However, the levy is not abolished.

"This is something in the policy domain...then we will have to hold that there should be no GST on medical devices", Justice Chandrachud said.

"There is a 5% GST on braille paper, wheelchairs..an able bodied person pays no GST for walking..", the counsel submitted.

"Our concern is how to unshackle a policy matter, otherwise you have a point", Justice Chandrachud said. The judge agreed to list the matter in September for hearing.

Earlier, the bench had sought the assistance of the Attorney General for India in the matter. In the hearing held in October 2020,  AG  KK Venugopal had said that while he understood the difficulties of the petitioners at a humanitarian level, mere imposition of tax cannot be held to be infringing the fundamental rights so as to warrant judicial interference.

In response, Senior Advocate Pinaki Mishra, who was representing the petitioner, had submitted that the imposition of tax resulted in denial of equal opportunities for the differently-abled persons and created barriers for them to access the resources available to other people. The GST on disability aids was also a violation of the guarantee of equal opportunities made by the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016.

Case Title : Nipun Malhotra versus Union of India |WP(c) 725/2017