The Delhi High Court on Wednesday lashed out at authorities for not exempting taxes on air purifiers, which it said have become a necessity amid the rising air pollution in Delhi.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela requested the GST Council to convene at the earliest opportunity and consider removing or reducing the GST on air purifiers.

"We direct that the said issue of lowering or removing the GST shall be considered by the GST Council at the earliest. We are informed that the GST Council is a pan-India body, and convening a meeting may take some time. However, considering the air quality situation in Delhi and nearby areas, we find it appropriate for the GST council to meet at the earliest," the court directed in a notice.

But why aren't air purifiers considered medical devices? Read on to find out.

Why are air purifiers not considered medical devices?

Air purifiers are currently taxed at 18% under GST rules. This is because air purifiers are not considered medical devices.

The reason why air purifiers are not categorised under medical devices is that they currently fall under the luxury items slab, along with electronic devices like air conditioners and televisions.

Sales of air purifiers have gone up in the national capital, with Delhi AQI switching between 'poor', 'very poor' and 'severe' categories for months this year.

Delhi HC raps authorities

Earlier during the hearing, the bench of the Delhi High Court rapped authorities, saying that the least they can do in the current situation is reduce the price of air purifiers by cutting taxes on them, even if they cannot provide citizens with air purifiers.

"This is the minimum that you can do. Every citizen requires fresh air. If you can't do it, the minimum you can do is reduce GST. Give an exemption for 15 days on a temporary basis. Treat this situation as an emergency," the HC said.

Delhi air pollution has reached severe levels for weeks, with air remaining toxic to breathe. For several days straight, Delhi AQI has remained above 400 at many monitoring stations, leaving residents gasping for air.

"How many times do you breathe in a day? 21,000 times. Just calculate the harm you are doing to yourself," the bench said.

The court was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking directions to the central government to classify air purifiers as "medical devices" and reduce the goods and services tax (GST) to the 5% slab.

"The imposition of GST at the highest slab upon air-purifiers, a device that has become indispensable for securing minimally safe indoor air, renders such equipment financially inaccessible to large segments of the population and thereby inflicts an arbitrary, unreasonable, and constitutionally impermissible burden," the petition stated.

It said that the Delhi air pollution situation necessitates that air purifiers fall within the scope of medical devices, as they are primarily used to prevent respiratory complications.

"Accordingly, the continued imposition of 18% GST on air purifiers, despite their medically recognised role in crisis situations and their functional equivalence to devices taxed at 5%, constitutes an arbitrary and unreasonable fiscal classification. Such differential treatment fails the constitutional test of intelligible differentia and bears no rational nexus to public-health objectives, thereby warranting judicial intervention," the petition stated.