High Court Judgement On Imported Cars

By Staff

Published: Tuesday, October 19, 2010, 16:58 [IST]

The Mumbai High Court has delivered a landmark judgement on the import of cars. It ordered that a car imported from a country where the individual has lived for more than two years is deemed to be the owner of the vehicle. This comes in the form of a verdict for a Toyota Cynos imported a decade ago which was confiscated by the Customs authorities and was subsequently released four years later.

The judgement has rejected the objection raised by the customs appellate over the ownership dispute in this regard. This judgement, in response to the Director General of Foreign Trade, is expected to make a marked difference for Bollywood stars who are habitual to import cars often. The policy enabled the import of cars and MUVs free from the restricted category by shelling out usual customs duty and without pre license.

This enabled many persons coming home after spending many years abroad for final settlement in homeland. But on a condition that the car should not be sold before two years of settlement. The judgement came to the dispute between an illiterate carpenter over the car of Rs4 lakh at that time. The carpenter disclaimed the ownership but was wrongly implicated by two persons by misusing his passport. In 1996 the car was directly imported from Japan thorough its original owner.

However the registration was canceled due to the customs duty dispute. The customs tribunal dismissed the plea on the grounds that the exploitation of an innocent person cannot be entertained.

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Article Published On: Tuesday, October 19, 2010, 16:49 [IST]

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