MUMBAI : Citing exigency of work in being unable to deliver within 3 and half months its judgment in the Skoda-Customs tussle over CKD (complete knocked down) parts imports Bombay high court on Tuesday said the dispute will now be heard by another bench.The HC said status quo will be maintained for another four weeks in the matter.Skoda Auto Volkswagen India Pvt Ltd had petitioned the HC against a Sept 2024 cause notice for USD 1.4 billion (₹12000 crore) over allegedly unpaid import duty dues for over 12 years over alleged “mis classification” of the items as individual items.A division bench of Justices B P Colabawala and FP Pooniwala had reserved a petition filed by Skoda against show cause issued by the Central Government department against CKD parts at its Maharashtra plant.The bench in its order said, “the above matter was reserved for judgment on 28th April 2025. We had also requested the contesting parties to submit brief written submissions within 2 week from that date. The same was also complied with. However due to the exigency of work we have not been able to pronounce judgment till date.”On Tuesday the bench referred to a recent Supreme Court ruling that says once a matter is reserved for judgment it should be pronounced within 3 months or within another extension of 2 weeks.In this case that deadline elapsed and hence the HC informed senior counsel Arvind Datar for Skoda Centre’s counsel J B Mishra that the petition be placed regular bench that at present is assigned indirect tax disputes for the matter to be heard afresh.
