Covid Patients, Families Left To Fend For Themselves: Delhi High Court

The court made the observation while declaring as "unconstitutional" the centre's decision to impose Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST) on oxygen concentrators.

Absence of medical resources forced COVID-19 patients to fend for themselves and look for oxygen concentrator as an alternative to liquid medical oxygen (LMO) and even procure the device from overseas amid short supply, the Delhi High Court has said. The court made the observation while declaring as "unconstitutional" the centre's decision to impose Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST) on oxygen concentrators which are imported by individuals or received as gifts for personal use. The verdict came on a plea by 85-year-old Gurcharan Singh, who was suffering from COVID-19, challenging the imposition of IGST on the import of oxygen concentrators as gift for personal use. He had said his nephew sent an oxygen concentrator for him as a gift from the US to ameliorate his condition. A bench of Justices Rajiv Shakdher and Talwant Singh took judicial notice of the fact that LMO was in short supply not only in Delhi but in all parts of the country which has resulted in people scrambling for oxygen cylinders, oxygen concentrators, and in cases where a person has suffered severe infection, for hospital beds, so that the person concerned could be put on a ventilator.