Court flags inadequate action on Delhi air pollution, seeks urgent response on temporary GST relief for purifiers, according to media reports.
The Delhi High Court on Wednesday pulled up the Centre for what it described as inadequate action to address the capital’s deteriorating air quality, according to media reports.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela observed that if authorities are unable to ensure clean air for residents, they should at least consider reducing the goods and services tax (GST) on air purifiers, which currently stands at 18 per cent.
Emphasising the gravity of the air pollution crisis, the court observed that reducing GST on air purifiers was the bare minimum relief the government could provide if it was unable to ensure clean air for citizens, and suggested a temporary 15-day exemption by treating the situation as an emergency. The bench directed the Centre to seek instructions and indicate when it would revert on the matter.
The court also sought an immediate response from the government, stating that the issue would be listed during the court vacation solely to monitor compliance, and underlined the health impact of polluted air by noting the number of times a person breathes in a day. It asked the authorities to return with instructions by 2:30 pm, adding that the matter would remain pending during vacations for compliance.
The observations came while the court was hearing a plea seeking directions to classify air purifiers as a ‘medical device’ and lower the GST rate on them from 18 per cent to 5 per cent.
The petition, filed by advocate Kapil Madan, argued that air purifiers cannot be categorised as luxury goods in view of what he described as an “extreme emergency crisis” triggered by severe air pollution in Delhi, as per the reports.
Madan argued that levying GST at the highest slab on air purifiers, now essential for ensuring minimally safe indoor air, has made the devices unaffordable for large sections of the population, thereby imposing what he described as an arbitrary, unreasonable and constitutionally impermissible burden.
The plea further contended that air purifiers qualify as ‘medical devices’ under a 2020 notification issued by the central government. “Air-purifiers perform a critical medical-device function by enabling safe respiration and mitigating life-threatening exposures, placing them squarely within the preventive and physiological-support purposes,” the petition stated, as per the reports. It also submitted that levying GST at 18 per cent on air purifiers is arbitrary, unreasonable and disproportionate in the prevailing circumstances.
