The Supreme Court two-judge bench of Justice M R Shah and Justice C T Ravikumar held that, a Writ of Mandamus cannot be issued directing the Government to exempt the medicine to cure Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) from Goods and Services Tax (GST) as it is a policy matter of the Government.
The Petitioners Cure SMA Foundation of India and Others approached the Supreme Court with a writ petition to direct the respondent-State to completely exempt drugs for treatment of rare diseases from the levy of IGST, CGST, SGT and Custom Duty and direct the respondents to permit import the drugs for treatment of SMA directly without approaching the Centre of Excellence.
The Supreme Court Bench observed that, “ultimately it is for the Government to take a policy decision whether to completely exempt drugs for treatment of rare diseases from the levy of IGST, CGST, SGT and Custom Duty” and held that “No writ of mandamus can be issued directing the respondent/Union of India to exempt the drugs from payment of any tax or custom duty.”
In the second issue as to the direction to permit import of drugs directly, the Court observed that “There may be number of reasons why the drugs are to be cleared by the Centre of Excellence.” and said, “No writ of mandamus can be issued directing the respondents to permit import the drugs for treatment of SMA directly without approaching the Centre of Excellence.”
Thereby dismissing the Writ petition, the Supreme Court said that, “it will be open for the petitioners to make a representation to the Union of India/Ministry of Health.”
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