Aarti Drugs Ltd. v. Designated Authority, Director General of Antidumping & Allied Duties

CUSTOMS TARIFF ACT, 1975

--Anti--Dumping Duty (ADD)Metronidazole--Notification No. 40/2012--Cus dt. 30-8-2012--Where the continuation of the ADD will be only till such time, the SSR continues and in any event will not exceed the one year period stipulated in the second proviso to section 9A(5) of the CTA, then if the SSR concludes earlier than one year, the ADD will not continue beyond that.--The issue under consideration was whether the ADD that was imposed by the Notification No. 40/2012-Customs, dt. 30-8-2012 and which expires on 29-8-2017, should be continued as a consequence of the court having directed the assessee to initiate the SSR. Assessee contended that where the SSR was initiated by the Central Government, then “in all likelihood the Central Government would make use of second proviso and issue notification for continuing the said Anti-Dumping Rules”. However, revenue alleged that the SSR had then been initiated but as far as the Central Government was concerned, unless there was a proper notification both for the purposes of initiating the SSR and for continuation of the ADD, there was no automatic continuation of the ADD only because the Central Government had decided that a SSR must be initiated.Held:The Court directed that the ADD that was imposed by Notification No. 40/2012, dt. 31-8-2012 will continue till the conclusion of the SSR initiated by the Central Government on the direction of this Court by the order dated 25-8-2017. Needless to state that the continuation of the ADD will be only till such time, the SSR continues and in any event will not exceed the one year period stipulated in the second proviso to section 9A(5) of the CTA. Therefore, if the SSR concludes earlier than 1 year, the ADD will not continue beyond that.