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The Supreme Court has today issued notice on a plea challenging a notification imposing 18% GST on candidates of the Diplomate of National Board (DNB) examination alleging that the same is not applicable under the Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017.

Hearing the plea a division bench of Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice MR Shah said, "We are doubtful whether these notifications will apply to these institutions collecting fees for the courses."

The plea filed by the Association of Diplomate of National Doctors alleged that the National Board of Examinations, which conducts the DNB exam, is forcing its students to pay extra GST charges on Education/ Tuition fees by way of threatening e-mails which state that if the tuition fees with GST is not paid till Aug 5, their candidature will be canceled.

DNB is a Post-Graduate Masters degree which is the same as the MD/MS degree, awarded to Specialist Doctors in India after completion of three year residency.

The petitioner was represented by Sr. Adv. N S Nadkarni and Advocates Puneet Yadav, Sourabh Gupta and Parijat Kishore from Samaya Law Chambers.

Nadkarni submitted that there are three issues in the matter, relating to GST, increase in fee and the examination. 

"In the impugned notification it says payment of GST is mandatory according to Government," Nadkarni added.

Nadkarni submitted that a fee of Rs. 1,25,000 enhanced on 3 April 2019 by virtue of clarification in 2021 is being applied to all ongoing specialities irrespective of year of joining.

While issuing notice in the matter, the bench observed that this is an important issue and marked the notice returnable on Sep 3.

The plea has further contended, "respondents are creating unreasonable distinction between the candidates who have already paid the fees directly to the Hospital/ Institution before the impugned notification and in a way exempting them from payment of fees as per the impugned notification."

Case Title: Association of Diplomate of National Board Doctors v. National Medical Commission

Edited by Shreya Agarwal