The Kerala High Court on Thursday directed the Union government to conduct an inquiry to ascertain the loss suffered by the Centre on account of the transhipment of catch to U.S. trawler ships or bunkers in the nearby ports of neighbouring countries by licensed Indian trawlers operating in high sea under the Letter of Permit (LoP) scheme. The court also directed the Union Ministry of Agriculture to constitute a competent committee to conduct the inquiry to assess the loss. The Centre had submitted that the LoP scheme had been rescinded now. The directives were passed on a writ petition filed by M.K. Salim of Kollam. He alleged that foreign deep sea trawlers were looting sea wealth by transferring the catch by mid-sea transshipment. As per the Letter of Permit (LoP) scheme, Indian fishing firms could buy technologically advanced foreign vessels and operate in the Indian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) by obtaining permission. The Indian firm could completely own the vessel in three years. The petitioners allegation was that in practice, the vessels continued to be registered in their countries of origin and were controlled by the foreign firms. The Indian firms remained as proxy owners and were paid commissions by the foreign firms that sell the Indian fish in the international market. The petition sought a directive to constitute a special team of officials to investigate into the allegation of loss of billions of foreign currency earnings to the country by the unauthorised use of LoP .