Mr. Sat Pal, J. ( 1 ) IN the wake of Gulf War which began in the firstweek of August 1990, a large number of Indian repatriates filed from lraq/kuwait and came to the Indian border by land route through Turkey/iran andpakistan. ( 2 ) SOMETIME in the middle of September, 1990, it was brought to thenotice of the Government of India that a large number of such repatriates whofled from Iraq/kuwait with virtually nothing in their possession except thecar in which they escaped from the war zone. In view of the extremefinancial distress and having driven down over a distance of 20000-25000kilometers over land, the Government of India issued a notification dated 23/10/1990 under Section 25 (1) of the Customs Act, 1962 permittingsuch persons to import the cars without payment of duty subject to the following conditions:- (I) the importer produces evidence to the satisfaction of theofficer not below the rank of a Deputy Collector of Customsthat- (a) the said motor car was registered with the appropriateauthorities at Kuwait or Iraq on or before the 31st day ofjuly, 1990 in the name of the importer; (b) the importer has travelled from Iraq or Kuwait in the saidmotor car before entering the land customs station atattari: (ii) the importer shall not part with the motor car within a periodof 5 years from the date of importation by way of sale, transfer,loan or in any other manner and the importer gives an undertaking to this effect to the Assistant Collector of Customs,amritsar at the time of clearance of the car; (iii) the importer shall inform the Assistant Collector of Customs orcentral Excise having jurisdiction over the place where theimporter is going to reside in India by a registered letter or bypersonally delivering the letter in his office against acknowledgement, that the importer has brought the said motor car to thesaid place availing of the benefit of this Notification, giving fullparticulars of the motor car with or without accessories andshall undertake to produce the motor car before the saidassistant Collector as and when required by him to verify thepossession of the motor vehicle with the importer; (iv) the importer at the time of clearance gives a declaration to theassistant Collrctor of Customs, Amritsar that no other motorcar has been imported by them or any member of his family interms of this notification. " ( 3 ) IT will be seen from the above that the importer of such car shallnot part with the vehicle within a period of 5 years from the date of importation by way of sale, transfer, loan or in any other manner. ( 4 ) SUBSEQUENTLY, the Government of India began to receive representations from another category of Indian repatriates from Iraq/kuwait who hadshipped their cars by sea to India. The Government of India considered thecases of these repatriates and considering them as a separate class gave someconcessions vide instructions dated 29/10/1990, a copy of which isannexure-R2 to the counter-affidavit filed on behalf of the respondents. Interms of these instructions the persons belonging to the aforesaid secondcategory were permitted to import the car duty free on temporary basis on thecondition that they will re-export the same after a period of six months orsuch other extended period as permitted on case to case basis as decided by theprincipal Collector of Customs. ( 5 ) THE petitioners in all these writ petitions belong to the secondcategory of Indian repatriates who had shipped their cars by sea to India. Inthese writ petitions the petitioners had claimed the benefit in terms of thenotification dated 23/10/1990 by which the Indian repatriates who hadcome to India by land route through their cars were allowed to import thesecars without payment of any duty. ( 6 ) MR. Shiv Kumar, learned Counsel for the petitioners contendedthat the petitioners who are also Indian repatriates from Iraq/kuwait havebeen discriminated inasmuch as those Indians repatriates who had come to theindian border by land route in their respective car have been permitted toimport the car without payment of any duty but the petitioners who hadshipped their car by sea to India have not been allowed to import the carwithout payment of duty though they are also prepared to abide by the termsand conditions stated in the notification dated 23/10/1990. He,therefore, contended that the action of the Government of India in not permitting them to import their cars without payment of duty is discriminatory andviolative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India. ( 7 ) ON a consideration of the matter we find no merit in the contention raised by the learned Counsel for the petitioner. He,therefore, contended that the action of the Government of India in not permitting them to import their cars without payment of duty is discriminatory andviolative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India. ( 7 ) ON a consideration of the matter we find no merit in the contention raised by the learned Counsel for the petitioner. As stated in the counteraffidavit filed on behalf of the respondents the Indian repatriates who had cometo Indian border by land route through Turkey/iran and Pakistan in their carsbelong to a separate category and these persons were in extreme financialdistress and had driven over a distance of 20000-25000 kilometers over land;whereas the petitioners who had shipped their cars by sea to India belong toanother category and they could not be classified under first category of Indianrepatriates as these persons had been able to send their cars by sea and werenot in the same financial distress as the persons of first category. In view ofthis fact we are of the view that the petitioners who belong to the secondcategory of Indian repatriates were not similarly placed as the persons of firstcategory. Thus in these cases, there is no violation of Article 14 of the Constitution of India. ( 8 ) DURING the course of arguments we were informed by the learnedcounsel for the petitioners that all the petitioners have now gone back toiraq/kuwait. As stated hereinabove one of the conditions mentioned in thenotification dated 23/10/1990 was that the importer shall not partwith the motor car for a period of 5 years from the date of importation by wayof sale, transfer, loan or in any other manner. Assuming for the sake ofargument that the notification dated 23/10/1992 is applicable to thepetitioners, even then they will not be entitled to any relief under extraordinary writ jurisdiction because having gone back to Iraq/kuwait they haveparted with their respective cars either by way of loan or in any othermanner and have thus contravened one of the conditions mentioned in the saidnotification. ( 9 ) IN view of the above discussion we find no merit in these writpetitions and accordingly all these writ petitions are dismissed in limine. ( 10 ) HOWEVER, we give two months time to the petitioners to export theimported motor car. without payment of Customs duty, failing which therespondents would be well within their rights to take suitable action against thepetitioners.