Customs amendment rules cannot impose a missing time bar where export claims remain verifiable from contemporaneous records.

Section 149 of the Customs Act permits amendment of shipping documents on the basis of documentary evidence existing at the time of export, and an administrative circular cannot introduce a rigid three-month limit not found in the statute. The Gujarat HC treated the circular's time-bar as ultra vires to that extent because it added a condition that could defeat otherwise verifiable claims supported by contemporaneous records. Where export details were undisputed and drawback could be computed from the existing record, conversion of shipping bills into drawback shipping bills was allowed, and drawback with statutory interest followed.

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Issues: (i) whether paragraph 3(a) of Circular No. 36/2010-Cus., prescribing a three-month time limit for seeking conversion of shipping bills, was valid in law; and (ii) whether the exporter was entitled to conversion of the shipping bills into drawback shipping bills and to payment of drawback with interest.

Issue (i): whether paragraph 3(a) of Circular No. 36/2010-Cus., prescribing a three-month time limit for seeking conversion of shipping bills, was valid in law

Analysis: Section 149 of the Customs Act, 1962 permits amendment of documents on the basis of documentary evidence in existence at the time of export, but it does not prescribe any outer time limit for making such a request. The amended statutory scheme also shows that if a time limit or restrictions were intended, they had to be prescribed under the Act as contemplated by regulation-making power, not by an administrative circular. The circular, by introducing a rigid three-month limit, added a condition not found in the statute and operated to defeat otherwise eligible claims supported by contemporaneous export documents.

Conclusion: The time-limit condition in paragraph 3(a) of Circular No. 36/2010-Cus. was held to be ultra vires Section 149 of the Customs Act, 1962 and Articles 14 and 19(1)(g) of the Constitution of India.

Issue (ii): whether the exporter was entitled to conversion of the shipping bills into drawback shipping bills and to payment of drawback with interest

Analysis: The claim was for drawback at the all industry rate, which depended on the export documents already available with the customs authorities and did not require post-export physical verification of the goods or inputs. The goods, their description, quantity, value, and classification were not in dispute, and the drawback could be worked out on the basis of the contemporaneous record. On those facts, refusal solely on the ground of delay under the circular was unjustified, and the statutory interest consequence under the Drawback Rules followed.

Conclusion: The exporter was held entitled to conversion of the shipping bills and to drawback of Rs. 11,18,458/- with statutory interest.

Final Conclusion: The impugned rejection was set aside, the circular was invalid to the extent challenged, and the exporter's drawback claim succeeded on the basis of contemporaneous documentary evidence.

Ratio Decidendi: Where Section 149 of the Customs Act, 1962 allows amendment of shipping documents on the basis of pre-existing documentary evidence, an administrative circular cannot impose a time limit that is absent from the statute, and conversion may not be refused merely for want of such a circular condition when the export claim is otherwise verifiable from contemporaneous records.

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