The Delhi High Court on Thursday rejected a petition seeking directions to the Centre to include masks and hand sanitisers in the list of essential commodities during COVID-19 pandemic.

A Bench of Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan also declined the plea to reduce the GST applicable on mask and hand sanitisers, noting these were “conscious policy decisions”. “Which items are to be included under the Essential Commodities Act is a policy decision. This court will be extremely slow in interfering with a policy decision of the Government of India,” it said.

“Inclusion of essential commodities under the Act is a complex decision based on a variety of factors like availability and pricing. If in the opinion of the government, masks and hand sanitisers are easily available, then there is no need to regulate supply of such commodities,” it added.

The Bench also noted that the petition did not show that the masks and hand sanitisers are not easily available or are being sold at exorbitant prices by traders for them to be included in the list of essential commodities.

The High Court also said that the petitioner “merely” feeling that GST rate is excessive cannot be a reason for reducing it.

The High Court’s decision came on a petition by one Gaurav Yadav who had said that the Centre on March 2020 issued a notification to include masks and hand sanitisers in the list of essential commodities.

The plea said that it was in effect only till June 30. The petition added that there was an apprehension that traders might increase the prices of these two items.