Rebate on aviation turbine fuel cannot ignore binding administrative instructions and prior departmental consistency for Nepal-bound aircraft

A rebate notification confined the statutory concession to specified foreign destinations, but departmental manual instructions later extended the same facility to aircraft bound for Nepal, Afghanistan and Bhutan. The revisional authority could not disregard those administrative instructions and rely only on the notification, because the Union Government was expected to act consistently with its earlier determination. The impugned revisional order was therefore unsustainable and was set aside, with the matter remitted for fresh consideration.

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Issues: Whether rebate of duty on aviation turbine fuel supplied to aircraft bound for Nepal was available in view of the relevant notification and the administrative instructions contained in the departmental manual, and whether the revisional authority could depart from its earlier consistent view.

Analysis: The rebate notification restricted the express statutory concession to specified foreign destinations, but the departmental manual and later administrative instructions extended the same facility to supplies made to aircraft going to Nepal, Afghanistan and Bhutan. The revisional authority declined to apply those instructions and relied only on the notification. The Court held that the Union Government, acting in revisional capacity, was expected to maintain consistency in its own determination, and that the administrative instructions could not be ignored where they had extended the benefit beyond the literal wording of the notification. In that view, the impugned revisional order could not stand and the matter required fresh consideration.

Conclusion: The impugned revisional order was set aside and the matter was remitted to the revisional authority for fresh determination.

Ratio Decidendi: Where the department has issued binding administrative instructions extending a rebate concession, the revisional authority should act consistently with its earlier determination and cannot disregard those instructions without justification.

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