Export policy entitlement upheld where PVC leather cloth matched the notification and supported cash assistance and replenishment benefits.

PVC leather cloth falling within the relevant notification entitled the exporters to cash assistance and import replenishment licences under the export policy. The Court treated the product description as satisfied because the goods were cloth made of eligible fibres with a polyvinyl chloride layer applied, and the pre-export certificates issued under the statutory inspection scheme supported that classification. Administrative authorities could not ignore the notification or the statutory certificates by relying on a local classification committee to deny benefits already accrued under the policy framework. The exporters' vested entitlement arising from the Government's export assurance was therefore upheld, and the claimed benefits were granted.

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Issues: Whether the petitioners were entitled to cash assistance and import replenishment licences under the export policy on the basis that the exported goods were PVC leather cloth.

Analysis: The exported product answered the description of PVC leather cloth in the relevant notification, which defined the expression as cloth made of cotton, rayon, nylon or synthetic fibres to which a layer of polyvinyl chloride composition had been applied on one or both sides. The goods had also been certified before export by the competent inspection authorities under the statutory inspection scheme, and those certificates supported the petitioners' classification. The administrative authorities could not disregard the notification or the statutory certificates and, by relying on a local classification committee, deny benefits that had accrued under the import policy. A vested entitlement arising from the Government's export assurance could not be defeated by administrative action inconsistent with the policy framework.

Conclusion: The petitioners were entitled to the claimed cash assistance and import replenishment licences.

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