Hc Dismisses Newspapers Plea On Anti-Dumping

The Delhi High Court yesterday dismissed the petitions of four national newspapers challenging the recommendation of the designated authority in the commerce ministry to impose anti-dumping duty on imported newsprint.

A division bench comprising Justice R C Lahoti and Justice J K Mehra observed in their brief order that no case is made out at this stage for the interference of the court in the matter.

The petition is dismissed in limni (without issuing notice to the respondents), the bench said.

The bench today sought certain clarifications from the counsel for the central government, Rakesh Tiku, who said that it was a recommendation to the government and the latter may or may not decide to impose the duty as per the recommendations.

The four newspapers, which had challenged the June 11 order, were the owners of The Hindu, The Hindustan Times, Indian Express and The Times of India. The contention of the newspaper owners was that the government should not rely on a preliminary report of the designated authority in the ministry of commerce in the absence of opportunity given to the likely aggrieved parties to put forth their viewpoint.

The bench had reserved its order on Wednesday after hearing extensive arguments on behalf of the newspapers and the government.

The ministry of commerce had received a recommendation on June 11 for recording preliminary determination that there was dumping of newsprint by importers from USA, Canada and Russia during April and October 1996.

The counsel for the newspapers, Arun Jaitley and C S Vaidyanathan had contended yesterday that they were facing a threat by such a decision of the government and asked the government to come out with a statement that it would not impose any duty without giving them a hearing.

The designated authority in the ministry of commerce had initiated an investigation by way of a gazette notification on December 20 last year following a complaint by the Indian newsprint association alleging dumping of newsprint.

Jaitley and Vaidyanathan submitted that the government had neither served a notice nor ordered for any public hearing on the basis of the complaint and it had just sent a questionnaire to each of them for clarification.

Tiku submitted that the newspapers had sufficient knowledge as to why the questionnaire was sent and they did not enquire about the complaint against them.