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Centre wants clubbing of Ferrari PILs
September 23, 2003 20:48 IST
The Indian government on Tuesday told the Delhi high court that it would approach the Supreme Court for transfer of various Public Interest Litigations filed in different high courts against the decision to waive the Rs 1.13 crore import duty on the Ferrari car gifted to ace cricketer Sachin Tendulkar.
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There are several PILs pending in various high courts and the government would like them to be clubbed together and heard at one place, Additional Solicitor General K K Sud told a Division Bench of Chief Justice B C Patel and Justice A K Sikri.In view of Sud's submissions, the court posted the matter for further hearing on November 12.
Amicus Curiae Arjun Bhandari pointed out that the Centre neither filed its reply nor did it part with a copy of the order on waiver of customs duty.
Raising questions on the government's decison to grant the duty waiver to Tendulkar, the court had, on August 13, taken suo motu cognizance of newspaper reports on the issue and issued notices to the batting maestro and the Ministries of Finance and Sports.
When the matter came up for hearing on August 19, the Centre had sought to defend its action, terming it a policy decision which had been "blown out of proportion".
Bhandari submitted that it was not an issue of Tendulkar alone. The entire issue of duty exemption under the Customs Act had to be examined, he said.
"Let us go through the records and see who all have been given duty exemption in the last three years under Section 25(2) of the Act," he had said.