TATA COMMUNICATIONS LTD Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Rule, by consent, returnable forthwith. With the consent of the Counsel and at their request, the Petition is taken up for hearing and final disposal.

(2.) This Petition has been listed for hearing and final disposal with a companion Petition (Vodafone Essar Ltd. v. Union of India and Ors., 2011 6 BCR 145) Writ Petition No. 2357/2010 which was decided on 17 June 2011. The challenge in those proceedings before the Court was to a Circular dated 15 July 2010 issued by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade and to several notices issued by the Zonal Joint Director and by the Joint Director General, purporting to revoking the benefit granted under the Served From India Scheme (SFIS). The scheme was formulated under the Foreign Trade Policy for 200409. The circular under challenge was in turn based on the minutes of a meeting of the Policy Interpretation Committee (PIC) dated 5 July 2010. Counsel for the Petitioners has confined the challenge in these proceedings to the decisions taken at serial Nos. 1, 2(b), 4(ii) and 4(iii) by the PIC which were directed to be implemented by the Circular dated 5 July 2010.

(3.) In the companion Petition, by a judgment delivered by this Court on 17 June 2011, the Circular has been quashed and set aside in respect of the directions contained therein to implement the decision of the PIC at Serial Nos. 1, 2(a) and 2(b). Counsel appearing on behalf of the Petitioners and counsel appearing on behalf of the Respondents state before the Court that the challenge in these proceedings to the minutes of the PIC meeting contained at serial Nos. 1 and 2(b) will be governed by the earlier judgment of this Court. Consequently, for the reasons which have been already indicated by this Court while allowing Writ Petition No. 2357/2010, the impugned Circular dated 15 July 2010 in so far as it directs the implementation of the decision taken at Sr. Nos. 1 and 2(b) in the meeting of the PIC dated 15 July 2010 is held to be ultra-vires the Foreign Trade Policy for 200-409.