M.K.SALIM Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This writ petition is filed inter alia seeking the following reliefs:-

(2.) Petitioner claims to be a person getting involved in social issues and has approached this Court ventilating a grievance in public interest. According to him, by virtue of the policy issued by the Government of India, Letter of Permission (LOP) has been given to foreign deep sea trawlers who complies with the terms of LOP, on account of which substantial number of foreign trawlers were operating in the Indian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). It is alleged that the large quantity of sea wealth was being taken away without complying with the terms of LOP and there is no controlling mechanism worth mentioning to control such deep sea fishing. It is also contended that there was no effective mechanism to find out the sea wealth that had been taken away by the vessels who had obtained permission. It is further contended that though only registered Indian fishing vessels can operate as per the scheme of Department of Fisheries, Indian fishing firms were permitted to buy technologically advanced foreign vessels. As per the scheme, permission for a foreign vessel to operate in Indian EEZ is issued once it surrenders its registration in the country of origin and 10% of its cost is paid by the Indian firm to the original firm. It is contended that many of these vessels continue to be registered in their country of origin and are controlled by foreign firms. Indian firms were only proxy owners who is paid commission from the huge profit made by the original firms who sell Indian fish in the international market. It is further pointed out that the main loophole in the letter of permission is allowing midsea transshipments of fish catch and bunkering by deep sea trawlers. It is contended that there is absolutely no record of the sea wealth that had been caught by usage of the aforesaid vessels. According to the petitioner, all the rules and procedure had been flouted, thereby causing loss of sea wealth of nearly 500 million dollars every year in foreign exchange.

(3.) It is further contended that respondents 4 and 5, Reserve Bank of India as well as Marine Products Export Development Authority have not taken any action in the matter. They should have ensured compliance of the terms of LOP and the guidelines issued by the Reserve Bank of India. Petitioner refers to the report of Meena Kumari Commission wherein it is stated that LOP licence holding Indian companies are engaged in midsea transshipments of their catch in high seas itself to either big U.S. trawler ships which have the capacity to process the catch in the ship itself or bunker in the nearby ports of Maldives, Srilanka and other South east Asian ports and return to their origin port abroad and not to be seen anymore. It is observed in the report that each of these vessels made a catch of 11 crores of Indian rupees per season. Petitioner also placed reliance upon reports of Greenpeace India, a non Government organization and reports of Muraary Commission, Ayyappan Commission etc., to emphasise the alleged loot that is taking place on account of the uncontrolled and unmonitored LOP conditions.