SC dismisses MS Shoes' plea

LEGAL DIGEST

The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed the appeal of MS Shoes East Ltd against the ruling of the Customs, Excise and Service Appellate Tribunal in a case involving duty on the import of a Rolls Royce car in 1996. The import was made in 1996.

The clearance was given in 2005. The company demanded depreciation for the purpose of evaluation for the post-import period. The tribunal held that the post-import depreciation could not be taken into account, rejecting the contention of the company that there was a delay of nine years in releasing the car.

The Supreme Court upheld the view stating that the company's contention had no relevance as the value had to be determined under Section 14 of the Customs Act for delivery at the time and place of importation.

The lapse of time, before assessment by the authorities and after the Bill of entry was filed, was irrelevant, the Supreme Court ruled.

Star India Ltd loses to Sea TV

The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed the appeal of Star India Ltd keeping in view the direction issued by the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal ordering it to supply signals of its bouquet of channels by entering into an agreement with Sea TV Network Ltd of Agra on reasonable terms. The dispute related to the distribution agreement only for the territory of Agra.

IPL, ILCS joint venture cleared

The Supreme Court on Wednesday approved a joint proposal submitted by Indian Potash Ltd (IPL) and the Indian Labour Cooperative Society (ILCS) to revive the capital's Super Bazar, a cooperative venture, and asked the government to facilitate the process.

Earlier, Reliance Industries had offered Rs 228 crore for the revival of shopping complex. But since it could not get full control of the project, it withdrew from it. The court now approved the revival plan of IPL-ILCS combine, which had matched the Reliance offer.

Kemrock Ind appeal rejected

While imposing central excise tax on "composite" goods, the test to be applied for classification is what is the essential character of the item. This was stated by the Supreme Court while dismissing the appeal of Kemrock Industries & Exports Ltd against the Commissioner of Excise, Vadodara.

The company manufactured glass fibre reinforced plastics. It claimed that the item should be classified as glass fibre while the authorities maintained that it should be classified "sheets of plastics, laminated supported or combined with other materials." The Supreme Court said it was a composite article. Therefore it should be classified along with plastic and its related forms.

HC restrains pharma firm

The Delhi High Court has restrained an Amritsar-based pharma company from manufacturing and selling medicinal products 'Panadol' and 'Ferovit', which are similar to GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Beecham's products Panadol and Fesovit.

In its interim restraint order, the court said: "The Medico Pharmaceuticals Processors and their representatives are restrained from manufacturing and selling directly or indirectly dealing in medicinal and pharma products under the trademark Panadol and Ferovit or deceptively similar to GSK's Panadol and Fesovit."

Abacus misuses Tata trademark

The Delhi High Court has restrained Abacus Outsourcing and Consultancy Pvt Ltd, a Hyderabad-based firm, from using the trademark and trade name Tata or device T.

Restraining the company from using Tata's domain name www.Tatalimited.com, the court withheld company's ICICI Bank account in which it has deposited the money collected from various job seekers. Tata had approached the court after it found that Abacus was using its trade name and mark Tata and device T .