The controversy over Rs 1.13 crore duty waiver to Sachin Tendulkar on the Ferrari car gifted to him by Michael Schumacher is refusing to die down with a new Public Interest Litigation being filed in the Kerala high court on Friday.
Debate: Did Sachin deserve the duty exemption?
The PIL by Non Resident Indian Sanu Joe Mathew follows similar such petitions in Delhi and Bombay high courts.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice J L Gupta and Justice A K Basheer posted the case to Monday for a detailed hearing.
Mathew has challenged the government's decision on duty waiver as being 'illegal' and 'discriminatory' and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution (Right to Equality).
Section 25 of the Customs Act empowers the central government to waive customs duty on imported goods if it was satisfied that exemption should be given in public interest.
It also stipulates that exemption should be granted only in exceptional cases. Besides, a notification also needs to be published in gazette.
Mathew claimed no public interest was involved in granting the exemption to Tendulkar. If the government had collected the duty from the cricketer, it could have been utilised for some public welfare schemes, he said.
