Anti-dumping probe against Hyundai can't be terminated: HC

The Madras High Court on Tuesday said the ongoing anti-dumping investigation and imposition of anti-dumping duty against car major Hyundai for import of cast aluminium alloy wheels from China, Korea and Thailand, cannot be terminated.

“...Their fate depends upon what the final order of the designated authority is going to be,” the court said.

Hyundai had filed four writ petitions seeking a halt to the ongoing anti-dumping investigation against it and challenging provisional anti-dumping duty imposed on it.
One of these petitions challenged the preliminary findings rendered by the designated authority while two other pleas challenged the extension notification extending time up to June 9, 2014 and a communication intimating the parties about the extension of time.

Rejecting the writ petitions, Justice V Ramasubramanian said the extension granted to the authority after expiry of the original period is perfectly valid, as the grant of a request for adjournment need not necessarily form part of the principles of natural justice.

“If an adjournment could prove fatal to a case, a quasi-judicial authority can always deny the request for adjournment. If the adjournment of a case by one day would make the case infructuous and make one party the winner by default, the adjudicating authority should reject such request,” the judge said.

Noting that the designated authority could have granted extension of a couple of days, Justice Ramasubramanian said, “I have already furnished the list of persons who participated in the proceedings and the consultants/solicitors who represented them before the designated authority. Except Hyundai, no other participant has complained about the denial of an opportunity of hearing.”