Kerala High Court, For Now, Directs Central Govt. Not To Levy Tax On Group Health Insurance Of Retired Union Bank Staff
K. Salma Jennath
20 Jan 2026 11:26 AM IST
The Kerala High Court on Monday (January 19) passed an interim order directing the Central government, GST Council, Union Bank and others not to levy Goods and Service Tax (GST) on the insurance premium paid by the retired employees of the Union Bank of India and similarly placed persons for the policy year 2025-26.
The Division Bench of Justice V.G. Arun and Justice Harisankar V. Menon was considering a batch of writ appeals, which had challenged a judgment of the Single Bench that had held that GST exemption on health insurance policies applies only to individual policies and not group ones.
The writ appeals were admitted and posted on February 23 for further consideration. The interim order in one of the appeals is extracted below:
“Till then, there shall be an interim order directing the respondents not to levy GST for the insurance premium paid by the petitioners and similarly placed retirees or family pensioners of Union Bank of India for the policy year 2025-26. The above direction is issued in view of the undertaking made on behalf of the appellants that in case the writ appeal is decided against them, the GST component will be satisfied.”
Similar orders were passed in the other appeals as well.
The appeals were preferred by retired employees of various banks and the members of group health insurance policies after their writ petitions were dismissed by the Single Judge.
Since the GST levy on individual health insurance was waived off with effect from September 22, the petitioners/appellants had sought similar benefit for group health insurance policies. They had challenged the non-exemption provided to group policies as arbitrary and discriminatory.
Case Nos: WA No. 111 of 2026 and connected cases
Case Title: Vinod Mukundan and Ors. v. Union of India and Ors, and connected cases