Rebate claims and limitation cannot defeat an exporter when the required shipping bill was withheld by the department.

Rebate claims under the Central Excise law are not to be rejected as time-barred where the exporter could not file them within one year because the endorsed shipping bill, required as a supporting document, was not made available by the Customs or Excise Department. Section 11B requires timely filing with prescribed documents, but the CBEC Manual recognises that an incomplete claim may still be admitted when the missing document is unavailable for reasons attributable solely to the department. The operative question is whether the delay resulted from the department's lapse rather than any fault of the claimant; in that situation, limitation should not be applied rigidly and the rebate claim must be examined afresh in accordance with law.

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Issues: Whether rebate claims under the Central Excise law could be rejected as time-barred when the exporter could not file them within limitation because the customs authorities had not furnished the endorsed shipping bill copy required to accompany the claims.

Analysis: Section 11B of the Central Excise Act, 1944 requires a refund or rebate application to be filed within one year from the relevant date and to be accompanied by the prescribed documents. Paragraph 2.4 of Chapter IX of the CBEC Manual states the general rule that incomplete claims are not to be entertained, but it also provides that where the required document is unavailable for reasons solely attributable to the Central Excise or Customs Department, the claim may be admitted so that the claimant is not placed at a disadvantage with respect to limitation. Reading the provision and the manual together, the decisive factor is whether the delay in filing was caused by the department's failure to make the requisite document available. Since the endorsed shipping bill was a procedural document necessary to verify export and duty-paid character, and its non-availability was not due to any fault of the exporter, the claim could not be treated as barred merely by applying limitation in the abstract.

Conclusion: The limitation objection was not sustainable against the assessee, and the rebate claims were required to be considered afresh in accordance with law.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a rebate claim cannot be filed within limitation because the requisite export document is withheld or delayed by the Customs or Excise Department, the claimant cannot be prejudiced by a rigid application of limitation, and the claim must be treated in light of the departmental lapse and the governing manual instructions.

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