Delhi HC takes up Ferrari ‘profligacy’

Meanwhile, the Centre, responding to a PIL, told the Bombay High Court that waiving off the duty was in ‘‘public interest’’. The Ferrari was gifted by auto major Fiat to the master batsman when he equalled Don Bradman’s feat of 29 Test centuries.

Justice Vikramjit Sen of the Delhi High Court took into consideration the fact that such an act of ‘‘profligacy’’ happened as the Sports Ministry stated that financial constraints prevented it from increasing the number of Arjuna awards.

Terming it as ‘‘profligacy’’ associated with cricket and ‘‘parsimony when other sports are concerned,’’ the court also said that granting exemption of import duty to an individual was also violative of the constitutional right to equality under Article 14. Justice Sen cited an R K Laxman cartoon which showed an old man blessing a child wielding a willow : ‘‘May you become a super-player and may the Finance Ministry exempt all your income from soft drinks, toilet soaps, toothpastes from tax.’’ The judge said Laxman had reminded of an adage, that the greatest truths are spoken in jest.

In contrast to reports of the exemption of import duty of 120 per cent to the cricketer, the judge said, were reports highlighting the Sports Ministry’s finanacial constraints. Stating that the matter warrants examination in the public interest jurisdiction of the court, the single judge directed that the matter be listed as PIL, before the concerned bench on Aug 19.

The judge issued notice to the cricketer through the Mumbai cricket Asociation and through the BCCI. Notices were also issued to the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Sports. The court appointed Arjun Bhandari as amicus curiae and he would be filing the formal writ petition along with today’s court order.

Tendulakr received his much talked about Ferrari-360 Modena on August 9, after the Finance ministry exempted the 120-per cent import duty. The car was transported to India by an Air France flight from Paris.