Image Courtesy:hindustantimes.com
“This is a George Floyd moment for the citizens of this country. The refrain is ―”I can’t breathe”, albeit, in a somewhat different context and setting; although in circumstances, some would say, vastly more horrifying and ghastlier. Chased and driven by the merciless novel Coronavirus, the citizenry has been driven to desperation and despair”, said the Bench in context of scarcity of liquid medical oxygen.
Justices Rajiv Shakdher and Talwant Singh quashed a Central Government notification levying 12 percent Integrated Goods and Service Tax (IGST) on oxygen generators imported as gifts for personal use amid Covid-19. “…we hold that imposition of IGST on oxygen concentrators which are imported by individuals and are received by them as gifts [i.e., free of cost] for personal use, is unconstitutional”, said the court.
The Court observed that liquid medical oxygen was scarce, not only in Delhi, but in all parts of the country, while hearing a plea by an 85-year-old Covid-19 patient whose nephew had sent an oxygen generator as a gift from the United States of America. The petitioner had argued that the imposition of IGST by the Centre on the import of oxygen/oxygen generators as gift not only violated Article 14, but also abridged the right to have oxygen, a facet of the right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.
The Court opined that it would not be appropriate for the State to exclude a set of persons who would ordinarily fall within the exempted class by creating an “artificial, unreasonable, and substantially unsustainable distinction.” It further held in its judgment that the notification to impose IGST was issued in the wake of the pandemic, raging across the country, and hence “it makes little sense as to why individuals such as petitioner, are sought to be excluded from the beneficence which is bestowed on persons who fall within the sway of the notification dated 03.05.2021.”
The Bench also said that tax was an exaction that did not, ordinarily, recognise equity but “it must, however, in our view, bend to the will of equity in times of calamity which causes wholesale degradation in the human ability to contribute to the coffers of the State.”
Hence, the court said the State should relent, or at least lessen the burden of exactions which take the form of taxes, duties, rates and cess, in the very least, in times of war, famine, floods, epidemics and pandemics since such an approach allows a person to live a life of dignity which is, a facet of Article 21 of the Constitution.
On a parting note, the Bench said that scarcity of liquid medical oxygen, medicines, oxygen concentrators, hospital beds, ventilators, and other medical equipment, crucial for battling against the infection caused by the virus, has brought out the best and worst in people. “We have messiahs. We have charlatans. We have hoarders”, said the court.
The judgment may be read here:
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