Bombay HC quashes DRI’s letter rogatories; big firms hope similar treatment
The Bombay High Court on Thursday provided a big relief to Adani group in a coal scam and also paved the way for many other corporate entities to seek similar relief. The court ordered quashing of all letter rogatories (LRs) sent by Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) to countries, including Singapore, against three Adani group companies accused of overvaluing Indonesian coal imports between 2011 and 2015.
A division bench of justices Ranjit More and Bharati H Dangre allowed the Adani Enterprises Ltd’s (AEL) writ petition which questioned the procedural legality involved in issuing the LRs. The petitioner pointed out that LRs were issued “without any notice and hearing the companies”. It also said that at that point of time the DRI had not taken any cognisance of offence under the Customs Act 1962 against the group firms.
The court order virtually brings down the curtain on the ongoing probe against Adani group of companies and also comes handy for over three dozen other companies such as Essar group, JSW Energy and JSW Steel, Hyderabad — based NSL Group, India Cements, NTPC, MMTC, Tamil Nadu SEB and Karnataka Power Corporation. All of them are also facing DRI probe for alleged overvaluation of coal imports from Indonesia.
The DRI had demanded around Rs 29,000 crore from these companies for alleged overvaluation of coal imports. The Customs, Excise & Service Tax Appellate Tribunal had already rejected this plea.
In June this year, the DRI charged AEL of attempting to block its probe into the overvaluation charge.
The DRI filed an affidavit in the Bombay High Court on June 13 questioning the logic behind the AEL decision to question the “well-settled procedure of issuance of Letter Rogatory”.
A letter rogatory is generally dispatched to another country by the Central Government to seek the help of foreign judicial authorities in probing an offshore entity in connection with an ongoing domestic probe.
The Thursday Bombay High Court order is big setback for the DRI and all those who had alleged that the Adani and several other companies made huge money by overpricing the Indonesian coal imports between 2011 and 2015.
The other aspect of the coal scam probe related to allotment fraud had also generated a big controversy when the role of former CBI chief Ranjit Sinha had come under scanner for allegedly helping the accused companies.