New Delhi: A PIL has been filed in the supreme court seeking CBI probe into iron ore smuggling to China.

Advocate Manohar Lal Sharma has filed the PIL alleging that some companies are smuggling out iron ore to China since 2015. According to him, these companies are allegedly evading the export duty by declaring wrong tariff code to export iron ore under the Foreign Trade( Development & Regulation) Act, 1992. According to him, these companies are not paying the 30% export duty on the export of iron ore to China. Sharma has prayed for a court monitored CBI probe in the whole affairs.

A bench of the apex court comprising of chief justice Nuthalapati Venkata Ramana and justice Surya Kant has asked the solicitor general Tushar Mehta to file his counter reply.

The chief justice Ramana said, ” If it is true then it is a serious matter, which we need to look into.”

The bench asked the petitioner Sharma to file a comprehensive writ petition.