Taking up a petition filed with it by a Jawaharlal Nehru University student, the Delhi High Court has wondered why sanitary napkin wasn’t exempted from GST when kumkum and bindi could be exempted.

Zameena Israr Khan, a Ph.D. Scholar in African Studies at the famed Jawaharlal Nehru University, had earlier filed a petition with the Delhi High Court challenging 12% GST on sanitary napkins which very much fell in to the ‘essentials’ category. A Bench headed by acting Chief Justice Geeta Mittal and Justice Hari Shankar agreed that sanitary napkins are ‘necessities’ and wondered why it wasn’t exempted from GST.

It also came down hard on the Centre expressing its displeasure in the composition of the 31-member GST Council, which didn’t have a single female representative. “If Bindi, Kumkum and Kajal can be kept out of the ambit of GST, why not sanitary napkins which are ‘essentials’?” the Court wondered. “There can’t be any explanation for putting it under the taxable category,” the Court observed.

Centre’s standing counsel Sanjeev Narula said that the cost of the product would go up if it was exempted from GST as it would result in denial of input credit tax to the domestic manufacturers. Replying to this, the Bench observed that the Centre was playing with figures by furnishing such technical and statistical details.