Delhi High Court - Orders
Abb India Limited And Anr vs Directorate General Of Foreign Trade ... on 22 May, 2025
Author: Sachin Datta
Bench: Sachin Datta
$~130
* IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI
+ W.P.(C) 6856/2025, CM APPL. 31058/2025
ABB INDIA LIMITED AND ANR .....Petitioner
Through: Mr. Ramji Srinivasan (Sr. Adv)
along with Mr. Manoj, Ms. Aparna
Sinha, Mr. M.T. Reddy, Advs.
versus
DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF FOREIGN TRADE AND ORS
.....Respondents
Through: Mr. Rohan Jaitley (CGSC) along with
Mr. Dev Pratap Shahi, Mr. Varun
Pratap Singh, Mr. Yogya Bhatia, Mr.
Hussain Taqvi (GP), Advs.
CORAM:
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SACHIN DATTA
ORDER
% 22.05.2025
1. The present petition has been filed seeking the following prayers -
"(a) Issue a Writ of Mandamus or other appropriate writ, order or direction, upon the Respondent no.1 to substitute the name of the Respondent no.6 in place of the Petitioner no.1 in the Remaining Licenses, a list of which is given in Annexure P-35;
(b) Issue an appropriate writ, order or direction, quashing the order dated 8th May, 2025, passed by the Respondent no.2;
(c) Issue an appropriate writ, order or direction, restraining the statutory Respondents from taking any action in pursuance to the order dated 8th May, 2025, passed by the Respondent no.2;
(d) Issue a Writ of Mandamus or other appropriate writ, order or direction, upon the Respondent Nos. 1-5 that no coercive action in respect of the said Licenses be taken against the Petitioner no.1;
(e) Pass ex parte ad interim order in terms of prayer above; and"
2. The primary grievance of the petitioners is that the impugned order This is a digitally signed order.
The authenticity of the order can be re-verified from Delhi High Court Order Portal by scanning the QR code shown above. The Order is downloaded from the DHC Server on 30/06/2025 at 18:32:19 dated 08.05.2025 (hereinafter 'the impugned order') passed by the Joint Directorate General of Foreign Trade (respondent no.2) is in the teeth of the directions contained in order dated 07.03.2025 passed by this Court in W.P.(C) 2968/2025. The aforesaid directions read as under -
"16. In the circumstances, with the consent of respective counsel for the parties, it is directed that the respondent no.1 shall decide and pass a reasoned order on the application / representation dated 07.08.2024 filed by the petitioner no.1, within a period of 8 weeks, after giving an adequate opportunity of hearing to the petitioner no.1 as well as the respondent no.5, and also taking into account the terms of the aforementioned Scheme of Arrangement.
17. In the meantime, during the pendency of the aforesaid exercise, no coercive steps shall be taken against the petitioner no.1 with respect to the licenses under which the export obligations are yet to be discharged."
3. The background to the present petition is that the petitioner no.1 is a group company of the ABB Group. As part of the global divestment of the ABB Group's power grid business, the petitioner no.1 entered into a 'Scheme of Arrangement' under Section 230-232 of the Companies Act, 2013 for the demerger and consequent transfer of the demerged undertaking, constituted of the power grid business of the petitioner no.1, to its wholly owned subsidiary in India, that is, ABB Power Products and Systems India Ltd (APPSIL / transferee). Thereafter, APPSIL came to be acquired by Hitachi Energy India Ltd. (HEIL/respondent no.6).
4. In terms of the aforesaid Scheme of Arrangement (Clause 10.4), 74 Export Promotion Capital Goods (EPCG) Licenses and Advance Licenses (hereinafter collectively referred as 'the licenses'), which had earlier been issued by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) in favour of the petitioner no.1, stood transferred to the transferee/APSSIL which later came This is a digitally signed order.
The authenticity of the order can be re-verified from Delhi High Court Order Portal by scanning the QR code shown above. The Order is downloaded from the DHC Server on 30/06/2025 at 18:32:19 to be acquired by the respondent no.6 (HEIL). It is pointed out that, thereafter, even though respondent no.6 obtained physical possession of the aforesaid licenses and started operating them on the DGFT Portal, no steps were taken for substituting respondent no.6 as the licensee.
5. Thereafter, while the export obligations under some of the aforesaid licenses had been discharged by the respondent no.6 and Export Obligation Discharge Certificate/s (EODC) had been obtained, the export obligations with respect to some other licenses continued to subsist in the name of the petitioner no.1.
6. On 28.07.2022, the petitioner no.1 filed an application before the Additional Director General of Foreign Trade seeking substitution of the name of the respondent no.6 in place of the petitioner no.1 in the aforesaid licenses in view of the scheme of arrangement, by which, the said licenses stood transferred to the respondent no.6. Upon receiving no response thereto, an application / representation dated 07.08.2024 was sent by the petitioner no.1 to the respondent no.1.
7. While no response was received on the said representation dated 07.08.2024, 2 show cause notices including SCN dated 06.01.2025 and SCN dated 07.01.2025 came to be issued by the respondent no.1, calling upon the petitioner to discharge its liability against certain licenses which although had been transferred to respondent no.6 pursuant to the Scheme of Arrangement but continued to subsist in the name of the petitioner no.1.
8. Thereafter, on 24.02.2025, a notice under Section 143 of the Customs Act, 1962 came to be issued by the Office of the Commissioner of Customs (Export) [respondent no. 3] for invocation of a bank guarantee bearing B.G No.0002BGR0077218, furnished by the petitioner no.1 with respect to one This is a digitally signed order.
The authenticity of the order can be re-verified from Delhi High Court Order Portal by scanning the QR code shown above. The Order is downloaded from the DHC Server on 30/06/2025 at 18:32:19 of the licenses, which stood transferred to the respondent no.6 in terms of the Scheme of Arrangement, on account of the failure to submit the Export Obligation Discharge Certificate thereof.
9. In the aforesaid factual conspectus, the petitioners filed a writ petition being W.P.(C) 2968/2025 before this Court seeking the limited relief that directions be issued to the respondents for disposing of the application / representation dated 07.08.2024 submitted by the petitioner. Vide order dated 07.03.2025, the said petition came to be disposed of by this Court while directing the respondent no.1 to decide the petitioner's representation dated 07.08.2024.
10. Thereafter, both the parties were provided personal hearing and subsequently, the representation dated 07.08.2024 came to be decided by the Joint Directorate General of Foreign Trade (respondent no.2) vide impugned order dated 08.03.2025 [appended as Annexure P-36 to the present petition]. By way of the impugned order dated 08.05.2025, the respondent no.2 has proceeded to refuse substitution of the name of petitioner no.1 in the said licenses with the name of respondent no.6. The operative portion of the impugned order dated 08.05.2025 reads as under -
"12. The letter dated 07.08.2024 (mentioned in para 4 above) is not an application for transfer of authorization. It is a letter of request, which had not been followed up by the action of filing complete applications for transfer of the authorizations.
13. In the absence of an application for transfer of authorization in the mandated digital platform (Ref: Chapter 15 of the user help file of Importer-Exporter Code Module available in DGFT website), this office cannot proceed or any request of name change.
14. Considering the above facts and circumstances, M/s ABB is directed as below with respect to the authorisations in which export obligations is outstanding:
This is a digitally signed order.
The authenticity of the order can be re-verified from Delhi High Court Order Portal by scanning the QR code shown above. The Order is downloaded from the DHC Server on 30/06/2025 at 18:32:19
15. All applications including transfer of Authorisations shall be submitted online. Physical submission of documents will not be accepted.
16. With regards to the authorisation in which export obligation is outstanding, M/s ABB India Limited shall make a request under "www.dgft.gov.in"- Services - IEC Profile Management - Request for Merger/Demerger. Once the request has been approved, M/s. ABB India Limited may apply for transfer of authorisations through the EPCG/Advance Authorisation Module in DGFT Back Office Portal.
17. M/s ABB India Limited is directed to comply with the Public Notice No. 39/2015-2020 dated 18.10.2019 and furnish the statement of consumption of inputs/procurement of capital goods, attested by chartered engineer/chartered accountant. This shall be submitted along with other documentary details of any partial fulfilment of Export Obligation claimed towards offsetting the duty save amount.
This order is issued without prejudice to the rights of the DGFT or any other authority to initiate appropriate action against M/s ABB India Limited in the event of non-compliance or violation of the license conditions in the future."
11. It is submitted that the impugned order dated 08.05.2025 is not in consonance with the specific directions contained in paragraph 16 of the order dated 07.03.2025 passed by this Court in W.P.(C) 2968/2025 inasmuch as the same is not a reasoned order and the respondent no.2 has not taken into consideration the Scheme of Arrangement dated 08.03.2019 while passing the impugned order.
12. It is submitted that the petitioner no.1 had furnished several bank guarantee/s and bond/s as a precondition to obtaining the said licenses from the Customs Department and the said bank guarantee/s and bond/s continue to remain valid. It is the apprehension of the petitioners that in view of the name of the petitioner no.1 not being substituted with that of the respondent no.6 in the aforesaid licenses under which export obligations are yet to be discharged, the said bank guarantee/s and bond/s may be encashed by the This is a digitally signed order.
The authenticity of the order can be re-verified from Delhi High Court Order Portal by scanning the QR code shown above. The Order is downloaded from the DHC Server on 30/06/2025 at 18:32:19 respondent nos. 3 to 5.
13. Issue notice.
14. Learned counsel, as aforesaid, accepts notice on behalf of the respondents. Let a reply be filed by the respondents within a period of 4 weeks from today. A rejoinder, if any, be filed within a period of two weeks thereafter.
15. List on 10.09.2025.
16. In the meantime, in view of the aforesaid circumstances, till the next date of hearing, no coercive steps shall be taken against the petitioner no.1.
SACHIN DATTA, J MAY 22, 2025/dn This is a digitally signed order.
The authenticity of the order can be re-verified from Delhi High Court Order Portal by scanning the QR code shown above. The Order is downloaded from the DHC Server on 30/06/2025 at 18:32:19