Court orders halt to arbitrary govt

For 15 months, the govt turned a deaf year to representations from exporters, before removing the pre-import condition in early January 2019

In a telling judgment, the Gujarat high court has, in the case of Maxim Tubes Company and Others vs Union of India, struck down the pre-import condition under the Advance Authorisation Scheme (AAS).

The verdict says the said condition in paragraph 4.14 of the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) 2015-2020, inserted by Notification 33/2015-2020 and via clause (xii) in Notification 18/2015-Cus vide Notification 79/2017-Cus, both dated October 10, 2017, are ‘ultra vires’ (the phrase for something done beyond one’s power to so act or authorise) the AAS as contained in the FTP and in the provisions of the Handbook of Procedures. So,