Mumbai, Aug 13: The Centre has told the Mumbai High Court that waiving of import duty on Ferrari car gifted to batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar by Michael Schumacher was in "public interest" for his record 29 Test centuries. The government has filed an affidavit in the court in response to a public interest litigation filed by advocate V M Bharadwaj, challenging the decision of the Centre to waive import duty of Rs 1.13 crore on car gifted to Tendulkar. The petitioner contended that it was illegal, arbitrary and unjust on the part of the authorities to do so.

The government has relied upon an adhoc exemption order passed by N J Kumaresh, under secretary to government, waiving the import duty on the car gifted to Tendulkar for equalling Don Bradman's record of 29 Test centuries. The order said Tendulkar was in favour of custom duty waiver and the government was satisfied that it was necessary in public interest to exempt the duty on the car.

The respondents to the PIL are Union Government, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Finance Minister Jaswant Singh, former Communication Minister Pramod Mahajan and Tendulkar.

The PIL is listed for hearing before a bench headed by Chief Justice C K Thakker but did not come up on board today. Bureau Report