By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, OCT 20, 2015: THE case of the petitioners is -

(i) they represent the Almond Traders of the city of Delhi and of the State of Punjab;

(ii) with a view to initiate the trade between India and Pakistan, a Policy was introduced in October, 2008 for trade across the LoC between the two countries;

(iii) the purport of the said Policy was to improve the relationship between the two countries and to make available across the LoC commodities / items grown in the vicinity of LoC;

(iv) with that object in mind, a list of items was prepared in which trade across the LoC is permitted and which list included Almonds;

(v) however in the garb of trading Almonds across the LoC, Californian Almonds are being brought into India from Pakistan affecting the petitioners; and,

(vi) Pakistan is not known much as an Almonds growing country and from the value of trade it is evident that the Almonds being brought to India from Pakistan under the said Policy are not the Almonds grown in Pakistan but Californian Almonds.

They plead for the following reliefs -

(i) seek a direction to the respondents to take immediate steps and requisite measures to implement the Policy of Line of Control (LoC) trade and in particular take measures to ensure that items are not illegally imported in contravention to LoC trade Policy; and,

(ii) seeking a direction to the respondents to exclude import of Almonds from the Policy of LOC trade.

After hearing the point-wise submissions made by the Revenue and the argument that the petitioners, instead of making any specific complaints of violations of the said Policy, have filed this petition making vague allegations and if any specific complaints are made, action would be taken, the High Court observed & held -

++ This Court in exercise of powers of judicial review cannot enter into the domain of Policy making. The Competent Authority of the Government of India having taken a decision to allow trade across LoC in some items and having further decided to include Almonds in the list of items in which the said trade is permitted, it is not for this Court to intervene and to decide whether the trade across LoC in Almonds should be permitted or not. Moreover, the petitioners have not made out any ground for interference with the said Policy decision of the respondents. The grievance of the petitioners is of misuse of the Policy.

+ The settled principle that the mere possibility of abuse of a provision of law does not   per se   invalidate a legislation and that it must be presumed, unless contrary is proved that administration and application of a particular law would be done not with an evil eye and unequal hand (Sushil Kumar Sharma Vs. Union of India (2005) 6 SCC 281)   can be applied to executive policies also.

Holding that there is no merit in the petition, the same was dismissed.

(See 2015-TIOL-2442-HC-DEL-CUS)