The Bombay High Court on Thursday asked the Mumbai customs to handover a consignment of feeding tubes imported by a cancer survivor from the United States of America to his advocates.
The petitioner happens to be an overseas citizen of India. He had moved HC stating that he was diagnosed with oral cancer in December 2016. Therefore, due to remedial surgical operations, his intake of food was only possible through a feeding tube.
He further added that the feeding tubes are not available in the country and are required to be imported from the US. The petitioner said that as there are no other options available, his feeding tubes happen to be crucial. Furthermore, he said that since his stock had gotten over, he had ordered four boxes of the feeding tubes labelled ‘Osmolite Nutrio N-Food for Tube Feeding Patient’ from the US through DHL Express. However, his consignment had been withheld by the assistant commissioner of customs at Air Cargo Complex.
The division bench which consists of Justice SJ Kathawalla and Justice NR Borkar asked the DHL Express (India), which brought in the consignment, to file the bill of entry with the assistant commissioner of customs at Air Cargo Complex in Andheri on Wednesday. The customs department was further asked to process the documents and make sure that the consignment which contains the feeding tubes is given to the advocates of the petitioner, Crawford Bayley & Co, or the ones who are representing the petitioner, within 24 hours.
His counsel, advocate Prashant Asher had earlier moved for the court immediately stating that the cancer patient had a limited stock available with him. The stock would have lasted him a couple of days and if the consignment did not reach him it would be impossible for him to intake food. Therefore, the Bombay HC acted quickly to ensure the consignment reaches to the petitioner effectively.
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