2025 (7) TMI 733

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....eeta Yadav & Mr Rupesh Dubey,. ORAL JUDGMENT (PER M S SONAK, J) 1. Heard learned Counsel for the parties. 2. The Petitioner seeks the following substantive reliefs:- a. That the Hon'ble Court may be pleased to issue a writ of certiorari, to call for the records in the proceedings of the Respondent No. 1 & 2 in the matter of omission of tariff items under sub-heading 293359 of Chapter 29 of the Customs Tariff from Third Schedule of the Finance Act, 2022; b. That the Hon'ble Court may be pleased to issue a writ of mandamus or writ in the nature of mandamus or any other appropriate writ/order/directions to Respondent No. 1 & 2 to revise the tariff rate of Basic Customs Duty (BCD) for tariff items under sub-heading 293359 from 10% t....

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....ading 293359 from 10% to 7.5% effective from 1 May 2022. 6. Mr Mishra opposes the grant of any reliefs in this Petition by pointing out that once a particular tariff heading is prescribed, that constitutes the authoritative expression of the legislative will of the parliament, and the Courts cannot exercise their powers of judicial review in such matters. He relies on the decision of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Amin Merchant Vs Chairman, Central Board of Excise & Revenue 2016 (338) E.L.T. 164 (S.C.) to support his contention. Accordingly, he submits that this Petition is misconceived and may be dismissed. 7. The rival contentions now fall for our determination. 8. As noted above, the Petitioner claims that there is an "omiss....

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....nts the definitive expression of the legislative intent of the parliament. 12. Therefore, it is not for this Court to ordinarily issue writs of the type now prayed for by the Petitioner. Only if a law suffers from a lack of legislative competence or is ultra vires any provision of the Constitution can the Court interfere. However, on the grounds urged by the Petitioner, there is no question of issuing directions to the legislature to correct what the Petitioner terms as errors in the customs tariff. 13. The circumstance that the legislature has intervened prospectively and brought about changes in the legislation is also no ground to presume that the legislature has accepted the position that there were errors in the unamended legislation....