Orissa HC orders sale of foreign ship at Paradip as it fails to clear

The Orissa high court on Wednesday ordered the sale of the bulk carrier with a Panama flag, from which 22.2 kg of Cocaine was seized by Customs officials at Paradip port in Odisha eight months ago, as it failed to clear dues of ₹8 crore.
Justice V Narasingh of the Orissa high court (which is the court of Admiralty) ordered that bulk carrier MV Debi should be sold as per Section 11(3) of the Admiralty Act, 2017 and Admiralty Rules, 2020, which says a ship can be auctioned in the event of the owner abandoning the vessel after its “arrest”.
The HC asked the court commissioner to appoint ‘Adoina Offshore Consultants Private Limited’ as surveyors as well as valuers to submit a report for ascertaining the valuation of the vessel both for scraping as well as for trading on or before September 21.
The MV Debi, with Panama flag, arrived at Paradip port from Egypt via the Gresik Port in Indonesia on November 29. It was scheduled to leave for Denmark with steel plates. But 22.2 kg of cocaine estimated at ₹220 crores was allegedly seized from the vessel on December 1 last year by the Customs officials. At least 21 crew members of the ship including its captain Vu Kang Dinh are still being investigated by Customs under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
Even as the Customs officials were investigating, in February this year, the Orissa high court ordered the arrest of the bulk carrier after Paradip International Cargo Terminal filed an admiralty suit involving maritime claim for recovery of dues of ₹7.95 crore towards berth hire, penalty as well as legal charges.
Paradip International Cargo Terminal Pvt. Ltd, the infrastructural arm of major shipping logistics company JM Baxi Group, has been operating a multipurpose terminal 10 km off the Paradip Port on a Build, Operate, Transfer (BOT) since 2016. MV Debi which berthed at the cargo terminal on November 29 last year, is supposed to pay berthing charges to the company. After Cocaine was seized from the vessel by the Customs department, it docked at the cargo terminal occupying a regular space at the cargo terminal. In its petition before the high court, the JM Baxi group said that though it has been sending all the invoices and notices to the owners of MV Debi in Vietnam, it has not been able to get any dues.
The company, in its submission before the HC, said any further delay in the sale of the vessel would affect its seaworthiness, thus adversely impacting its price.