Accrued import rights protected against retrospective guidelines, with mandamus issued for the no objection certificate and import licence.

Administrative guidelines issued at the end of a licensing period could not retrospectively defeat an accrued right under the existing import policy. The petitioners had registered their requirement before the impugned guidelines, and the authority was found to have acted arbitrarily by changing its stand and failing to process the claim under the governing procedure for canalised imports and actual users. The petitioners' entitlement to the no objection certificate therefore survived the later circular, and mandamus was issued for the certificate and the consequential import licence to the extent admissible on the date of application.

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Issues: Whether the guidelines issued on 6 February 1988 could retrospectively defeat the petitioners' accrued right to a no objection certificate and whether the respondent was bound to issue the certificate under paragraphs 218 and 223 of the Hand-Book of Import and Export Procedure, 1985-88.

Analysis: The petitioners had registered their requirement well before the impugned guidelines were issued. The Court held that administrative instructions issued at the fag end of the licensing period could not be given retrospective effect so as to take away rights that had already accrued under the existing import policy. It further held that the respondent had acted arbitrarily in shifting its stand and in failing to process the petitioners' claim in accordance with the procedure governing canalised imports and actual users. The Court accepted that the petitioners' entitlement to import-related relief could not be defeated by a later circular or guideline and that the right to receive the no objection certificate survived the impugned guidelines.

Conclusion: The guidelines did not apply to the petitioners' pending claim and the respondent was bound to issue the no objection certificate, with consequential issuance of the import licence.

Final Conclusion: The writ petition was allowed and the petitioners were granted mandamus directing issuance of the no objection certificate and consequential import licence for the quantity found admissible on the date of application.

Ratio Decidendi: Administrative guidelines cannot operate retrospectively to extinguish an accrued right under an existing import policy, and where the authority has failed to act in accordance with the governing procedure, mandamus may issue to enforce the resulting entitlement.

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