NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has issued a notice to the Centre on a PIL challenging the policy for importing poppy seeds from Turkey to India.According to the PIL filed in the court there are inherent illegalities in the import policy which facilitates informal cartel.A Bench of Justice V Kameshwar Rao asked the Centre to file a counter affidavit in four weeks.
According to the PIL filed by advocate Sufian Siddiqui, the impugned public notice which was issued on January 7, and the guidelines issued in 2019 by the Central Bureau of Narcotics, Ministry of Finance, Department of Revenue, Government of India regarding the Registration of Sales Contracts for Import of Poppy Seeds from Turkey for the ensuing Crop Year 2021-22 are arbitrary, ultra vires, and unconstitutional and are in brazen contravention and teeth of the extant rules and regulations of FEMA and RBI.
The PIL was filed by petitioner Rajiv Agarwal an import/export businessman who deals in food grains for the last several years. He claimed that he was entangled in the web of grey areas of law, which prohibit Indian importers from making advance import payment without first obtaining the import license from the competent authority, meant to smoothen the process of imports however, has become a source of pain for the petitioner, therefore he seeks refuge in the Court’s wisdom for respite.
The PIL further added that as per the policy of Turkish Grain Board (TMO), only those Sales Contracts will be registered who have received 20% Advance Import Payment from Indian Importers before the stage of ‘Provisional Registration’, which is yet again ex-facie in contravention of the FEMA laws and also contrary to procedure of the impugned Policy/Guidelines.
“Thus, the aforesaid procedure contained in the impugned policy creates an anomaly for the Indian importers like the petitioner who are entangled in a quagmire and facing threat of getting sued from the Turkish Exporter,” the PIL said.
Petitioner says
The petitioner Rajiv Agarwal claimed that he was entangled in the web of grey areas of law, which prohibit Indian importers from making advance import payment without first obtaining the import license from the competent authority, meant to smoothen the process of imports