Supreme Court Requests Early Delhi HC Hearing In Pernod Ricard's ₹3,000 Crore Customs Duty Dispute

The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Delhi High Court to hear, within weeks, Pernod Ricard India Pvt Ltd's challenge to a September 2025 customs adjudication order in a valuation dispute in which it allegedly faces duty liability of around Rs 3,000 crore.

A bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and Nongmeikapam Kotiswar Singh noted that Pernod Ricard's writ petition before the Delhi High Court was listed for July 28, 2026.

It directed the parties to appear before the High Court on May 15; requested that the matter be taken up, if possible, on May 19; and asked that it be decided within two weeks thereafter.

"We request the High Court to pre-pone the date in the matter. We direct the parties to appear before the High Court on 15.05.2026 and request the High Court to take up the matter for hearing, perhaps, on 19.05.2026 and decide the same within a period of two weeks thereafter.”

The Supreme Court also requested the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court to constitute a bench for the matter, noting the alleged duty exposure, which Pernod Ricard disputes. The matter will next be heard before the Supreme Court on May 28.

“We further request the Hon'ble Chief Justice of the High Court to constitute a Bench for this purpose. This is in consideration of the fact that allegedly, the petitioner herein is liable to pay duty to the extent of Rs.3,000 Crore (approximately), though this is seriously disputed by the instant petitioner. At this stage, we refrain from making any observation on this particular aspect.”

The Delhi High Court case arises from a September 12, 2025 order passed by the Assistant Commissioner of Customs (Import) in the long-running dispute over the valuation of alcoholic beverage concentrates imported by Pernod Ricard from its UK affiliate, Chivas Brothers Ltd.

The dispute began with a Directorate of Revenue Intelligence investigation launched in 2014 over alleged undervaluation of those imports.

During that investigation, Pernod Ricard deposited Rs 60 crore with the DRI.

The Special Valuation Branch later concluded that the declared values were liable to be rejected. It recommended a 67.49% loading on invoice values for imports made from January 1, 2021 onwards.

Pernod Ricard had earlier challenged customs authorities' insistence on 100% bank guarantees for provisional assessment of future imports during the investigation. The Bombay High Court rejected that challenge in December 2022, holding that customs authorities could invoke Section 18(1) of the Customs Act after the SVB's findings on undervaluation.