Judicial directions to reduce the Goods and Services Tax on air purifiers would be unconstitutional and violate the doctrine of separation of powers, the Union government has told the Delhi High Court, Bar and Bench reported on Thursday.

In an affidavit filed on Sunday, the Union government noted that the GST Council was the sole body empowered to make decisions on the indirect tax under Article 279A of the Constitution. It added that tax rates were determined through cooperative federalism while also balancing competing fiscal interests.

Any judicial interference in the matter would bypass this constitutionally mandated process, it said.

The affidavit was submitted in response to a public interest litigation filed by advocate Kapil Madan, seeking directions to categorise air purifiers as a “medical device” and lower the GST levied on them to 5% from 18%.

On December 24, the court had directed the GST Council to convene an urgent meeting and consider lowering the levies on air purifiers in view of the high levels of pollution in Delhi and the surrounding areas.

Two days later, the Union government told the court that reducing the GST on air purifiers to 5% from 18% without following due process will open up a “Pandora’s box”.

The case will be heard by the court on Friday.

In its affidavit submitted ahead of the hearing, the Union government said that any direction issued by the court “to modify GST rates, convene a meeting of the GST Council, or to compel the GST Council to consider or adopt a particular outcome, would amount to the Hon’ble Court stepping into the shoes of the GST Council, thereby, exercising functions that the Constitution has consciously and exclusively entrusted to the GST Council”, Bar and Bench reported.

It added: “Such an exercise would violate the doctrine of separation of powers and render the elaborate and well-defined constitutional role of the GST Council otiose.”

The affidavit also said that the classification of air purifiers as medical devices would subject their import, manufacture, sale, stocking and distribution under the 1940 Drugs and Cosmetics Act and the 2017 Medical Device Rules. This would make their availability in the market regulated, it added.

It described the public interest litigation as a “motivated attempt to secure regulatory reclassification under the guise of public interest”, Bar and Bench reported.

“Such a regulatory shift would have the effect to favour a limited class of entities possessing the requisite licences, registrations, and approvals, thereby creating conditions for monopoly rather than advancing public access,” the legal news portal quoted the Union government as saying.

It added this, in turn, raised serious concerns about who was “really behind the institution of the present petition”.

During the last hearing on December 26, the court had maintained that something should be done to bring down the cost of air purifiers in Delhi in light of the air pollution crisis in the national capital.

“Why can’t it be done?” the bench had asked. “Do whatever you have to do. Right now, an air purifier costs Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000. Why not bring down the GST to a reasonable level where even a common man can afford an air purifier?”

Air quality deteriorates sharply in the winter months in Delhi, which is often ranked the world’s most polluted capital. Stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana, vehicular pollution, along with the lighting of firecrackers during Diwali, falling temperatures, decreased wind speeds and emissions from industries and coal-fired plants contribute to the problem.