Refund circulars cannot add conditions beyond the notification; multiple monthly claims cannot be rejected on that basis.

Departmental circulars cannot add restrictions to refund eligibility that are not found in the governing notification or statute. Where the notification did not require a single consolidated monthly refund claim, rejection of refund merely because multiple claims were filed in one month was unsustainable. Administrative instructions may bind departmental officers, but they cannot override or expand the notification's conditions. As the eligibility of the refund claims was not disputed, the technical objection based on the circular could not defeat the refund entitlement, and the contrary departmental challenge failed.

---

---

Issues: Whether refund claims could be rejected on the ground that the assessee filed more than one claim in a month in view of C.B.E. & C. Circular No. 6/2008-Cus. dated 28-4-2008, and whether such a circular could impose a restriction not found in the governing notification.

Analysis: The order of the first appellate authority was upheld because the circular could not override the statutory notification. Administrative instructions are binding on departmental officers, but a circular that travels beyond the notification has no enforceable legal existence. Where the notification itself does not prescribe a condition requiring a single consolidated monthly claim, the Revenue cannot impose that limitation by circular. The rejection of refund on that technical ground was therefore unsustainable, especially when the eligibility of the refund claims themselves was not disputed.

Conclusion: The restriction based on the circular was held invalid and the refund claims were held to be admissible; the appeal failed.

Final Conclusion: The decision affirms that departmental circulars cannot curtail refund entitlement in the absence of a corresponding statutory condition, and the departmental challenge was rejected.

Ratio Decidendi: A departmental circular cannot impose a restriction on refund claims that is not supported by the governing notification or statute, and any such contrary circular cannot be enforced against the assessee.

---