The writ petition was filed in the Supreme Court challenging the imposition of Goods and Services Tax (GST) on products meant for the aid of persons with disabilities.
The petitioner submitted that a normal person need not pay tax for walking, however, a disabled person needs to pay 5% tax for walking.
On the other hand, the Attorney General 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.
The Counsel on behalf of the petitioner argued 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, he added.
A three-judge bench comprising Justices D Y Chandrachud, Indu Malhotra and Indira Banerjee granted liberty to the petitioner to move a representation with the GST council for zero GST on disability products.
Justice Chandrachud said that the court had doubts about whether it can interfere with a policy decision to impose tax.
In matters related to taxation, the scope of judicial review is very narrow, the judge told the Counsel of the petitioner.
