In a significant victory for bullion importers from UAE under India UAE CEPA (Bilateral Trade Agreement), the Delhi High Court in a batch of writ petitions filed by Gold Importers (Petitioners) grants status-quo on the Mid-term Review of Tariff Rate Quota (TRQ) provided for concessional import of Gold under India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).
The bench of Justice Sanjeev Narula directed the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) to hear individual Petitioners and take decision within 3 weeks regarding TRQ allocation after considering facts of each case. In the meanwhile current TRQ allocations are maintained until a decision is made following the review process.
The bench observed that “there is significant merit in the contentions raised by the Petitioners… this review can be deemed a ‘blind’ review, given that no criteria were specified in the said Minutes with respect to the potential allocation”. Moreover, the public notice referred by Respondent pertains to FY 2023- 24, and there is no such public notice informing the Petitioners or the general public about such a criteria for FY 2024-25.
Gold Importers challenged the mid-term review of TRQ by DGFT where a decision was taken to revise the TRQ allocation under the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) between India and UAE.
The originally allocated TRQ has been revised based on the extent of the utilisation of the previously allocated TRQs. As far as the Petitioners are concerned, some had utilised ≤ 25% of the allocated TRQ quantities up to 30th September, 2024, while others had utilised 25%- 75% of their TRQs. Pursuant to the Minutes of Meeting dated 8th November, 2024, the allocated quantity for the former set of Petitioners was reduced to half, whereas for the latter group, no upward/ downward revision was made.
The gold importers contended that they were not afforded any opportunity of hearing, and without sufficient prior notice, a mid-year review of the TRQ allocations has been conducted by the Respondents. As a result, the TRQ allocations have been reduced by half in some of the cases, and the Petitioners’ requests for enhancement of allocation have not been accepted.
The importers further contended that the criteria for the revision of the TRQ allocation were never communicated to the Petitioners and therefore, they had no basis to anticipate that their imports would need to align with the criteria subsequently notified in the meeting held on 8th November, 2024.
The court directed the DGFT to examine all the issues raised by the Petitioners in the present petitions and issue a fresh decision on the basis. The Respondents, while taking the same into consideration, shall also examine each case on its own merits and take a fresh decision, in accordance with law.
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Case Details
Case Title: Ms Kaka Gold LLP Versus Director General Of Foreign Trade & Ors.
Case No.: W.P.(C) 16809/2024, CM APPL. 71133/2024, CM APPL. 71134/2024 & CM APPL. 71135/2024
Date: 05.12.2024
Counsel For Petitioner: Tarun Gulati, Senior Advocate with Mr. Rajat Mittal, Mr. Dharan Gandhi, Mr. Gautam Swarup, Mr. Priyanshu, Mr. Suprateek Neogi, Mr. Devyansh Garg, Mr. Pramod & Ms. Prena Pandya
Counsel For Respondent: Shiva Lakshmi
