The Supreme Court today stayed all the petitions relating to exempting sanitary napkins from the ambit of Goods and Services Tax which are pending before the Delhi and Mumbai High Courts.

News agency ANI reported that the Apex Court would further examine whether this is a fit case and see if all the matters pertaining to it should be heard by the Court itself.

After the rollout of Goods and Services Tax (GST) on 1st July 2017, various petitions have been filed in Courts challenging 12 per cent levy of tax on sanitary napkins.

A plea filed by a PhD student in JNU, Zarmina Israr Khan, in the Delhi High Court last year had termed the tax on the napkins “illegal and unconstitutional”.

Goods such as kajal, kumkum, bindis, sindoor, alta, plastic and glass bangles, hearing aids, passenger baggage, puja necessities of all kinds, and all types of contraceptives had been exempted from the Goods and Services Tax net by the government. However, sanitary napkins, necessary for the women’s health, were not given a second thought, the plea states.

While admitting the petition, the Delhi High Court had then sought an explanation from the Centre on the same. “Have you discussed it with the Ministry of Women and Child Development before doing it or have you just looked at the import and export duty. This has to be done while keeping in view the larger concern,” the bench had observed. The court had also expressed displeasure over the fact that the GST Council did not have even one single female member.

Though the Government had revised the tax rates for essential goods recently, the sanitary napkins could not find a place on the list.