Delhi HC stays order setting aside LOC against Huawei CEO

The Delhi High Court has stayed an earlier lower court order removing the Look Out Circular (LOC) issued against Huawei Telecommunications India Chief Executive Officer Xiongwei (David) Li.

In its order on Monday, Justice Anu Malhotra observed that the court has to examine the relevant details of the LOC which was issued by the Income Tax Department and directed them to submit it.

Accordingly, the bench reserved the matter for Thursday and stayed the earlier order till then.

"The matter is reserved for orders on the application seeking the stay of the impugned order and is directed to be listed for September 15 for pronouncement, till then the operation of the impugned order has stayed," the court said.

In the earlier order while removing the LOC against Li, the trial court had said that the Chinese company is "not a fly-by-night operator, and considering that it generates considerable revenue from India, it is prudent that a condition is imposed upon payment of salary, bonus, ESOPs, and other benefits".

On May 1, Xiongwei was stopped at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi in the wake of the LOC. He was set to attend an official meeting of his company in Bangkok.

Earlier, advocate Vijay Aggarwal, who appeared for the petitioner, said despite repeated requests, the authorities didn't provide any reason for the LOC.

In the earlier hearing, in an apparent reference to a dialogue from a Bollywood movie, Li had told the court that "I am a Chinese and not a terrorist".

As per one of the contentions of the Income Tax Department, Huawei had a "willful failure" of providing account books and relevant documents during a search at the Chinese tech giant's Gurugram office.