Nrapen Shanker Acharya son of Shri Narbada Shanker Acharya Vs Union of India (Rajasthan High Court)
The Rajasthan High Court dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by an advocate seeking directions relating to the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP), 2023 and the Hand Book of Procedure (HBP), 2023. The petitioner claimed that the petition was filed in the interest of exporters and importers after conducting research to facilitate relaxation of the provisions of the FTP and related procedures. The Court observed that these statements themselves were sufficient to dismiss the writ petition.
The petitioner contended that the Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act, 1992 empowers the Union of India to formulate the FTP and that the FTP notified on 01.04.2023 provides for Duty Exemption/Remission Schemes, including Advance Authorisation and Duty Free Import Authorisation under Chapter 4. The grievance was that the Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) had not issued a notification imposing pre-import conditions under Clause 4.13 of the FTP, nor prescribed a procedure for notifying the Actual User Condition under Clause 4.26 of the FTP through the Hand Book of Procedure.
The petitioner sought directions to empower or authorise the DGFT to impose pre-import and Actual User Conditions through public notices and further sought a declaration that Paragraph 4.25 of the Hand Book of Procedure was not mandatory, so that the Norms Committee would not be required to call for and examine trade data before reviewing the Standard Input Output Norms (SIONs).
