A writ petition was filed in the Kerala High Court on Tuesday challenging the Union government’s ban on export of shark fins.
The petition was filed by Bijumon of Kochi, a seafood exporter. According to him, the notification issued by the Director General of Foreign Trade prohibiting export of shark fins was issued without conducting any study or without consulting the stakeholders.
The ban had nothing to do with the marine fish conservation or environmental conservation. In fact, the dried shark fins were widely available in the State for domestic use. The shark fins had a greater commercial value in foreign markets, especially in the South-East Asian countries as they were used for cooking and medicinal purposes.
The petitioner said the Centre had banned catching of only six out of 99 species of sharks which were rarely found in Indian waters. However, export of all shark fins had been prohibited under the export policy brought out by the Director General of Foreign Trade. There was no prohibition on sale of fins and other by-products from the other sharks.
The petitioner pointed out that there was no restriction on the export of shark liver oil or other value-added products from shark by Indian exporters. There was considerable difference in the character of fins of each species of shark. As a result of the new policy, the petitioner was not able to perform his export obligation, resulting in loss.
The regulation of export of marine products came under the domain of the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA). Therefore; the notification issued by the Director General of Foreign Trade was unconstitutional and discriminatory.
