A day after it freed 50 crew members stranded on three vessels in the Arabian Sea, the Bombay High Court on Wednesday allowed the ships to be taken out to the Alang ship-breaking yard in Gujarat, citing “security threat’ and “maritime obstructions”.

The ships were detained for illegal fuel and bitumen transfers.

A bench of Chief Justice (CJ) Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam A Ankhad was hearing pleas by owners of the ships Balboa Shipping, Star Management Shipping and Royal Princess Shipping, foreign companies registered in Panama seeking release of the vessels and sailing permission, while the police case continues.

The three vessels,  MT Asphalt Star, MT Stellar Ruby, and MT Al Jafzia,  were intercepted in February by the Indian Coast Guard and were detained by the Yellow Gate police station. They were alleged to have smuggled Iranian bitumen by using deceptive measures such as switching off their location systems, similar to practices undertaken by “shadow fleets” to transport sanctioned commodities by avoiding interception.

The bench was informed that another bench led by Justice Ravindra Ghuge on May 5 had ordered release of crew members stranded on detained vessels for nearly three months, observing that “for them life comes only once”.

CJ Chandrashekhar-led bench was further told that after its March 17 order, the petitioners had obtained valuation reports putting the cumulative value of the ships at 53.28 crore. However, advocate Jitendra Mishra, representing the Coast Guard and the Director General of Shipping, disputed the figures on instructions from officials present in court and claimed each vessel should be valued at around Rs 350 crore.

Mishra argued that keeping unmanned ships in the high seas for long was hazardous to security and maritime traffic and that they could be moved to Alang, as other procedures and resolution of disputes may take time.

The HC said that it was not inclined to go into all these disputes at present and noted, “as suggested by Mishra, the ships in question, shall be permitted to be taken to the Port at Alang Shipyard in Gujarat”.

“So, we are permitting removal and movement of the ship to a particular place that shall remain at all times under their (authorities) jurisdiction and control. This was your worry,” CJ Chandrashekhar orally remarked.

“At this stage, the court is concerned with security threat and maritime obstructions as indicated by respondent authority,” the bench noted in its order.

The HC added that ships be permitted to be taken to Alang port on furnishing an undertaking by the petitioners to abide by past court directives and the vessels shall remain in authority’s “legal custody”.

It asked petitioners to appoint agent of Indian nationality in case their present representative is foreign national, to prosecute the pleas.

The bench said that issue related to valuation and quantum of security deposit can be dealt with at later stage after the respondent authority files an additional affidavit to the claims made by the petitioner and posted further hearing to June 18.