Manual issuance of MEIS scrips permitted where electronic transmission failed, and customs had to honour them.

Where electronic transmission of export data had not been successfully implemented, the Court accepted the practical arrangement reached between the departments and directed manual issuance of MEIS scrips. The DGFT was required to issue the scrips expeditiously on a manual basis, and the customs authorities were bound to honour them without insisting on electronic transmission. The ruling reflects that when automated verification systems fail to facilitate export incentive processing, manual verification and issuance may be adopted to ensure the benefit is effectively implemented.

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Issues: Whether the petitioner was entitled to issuance of MEIS scrips manually and whether the customs authorities were required to honour such scrips without insisting on electronic transmission.

Analysis: The dispute arose because the electronic linkage and transmission of export data between the concerned authorities had not been successfully implemented, although the underlying exports had already been verified for grant of IGST refund. The parties placed before the Court the consensus reached in the inter-departmental meeting, under which the practical solution was to issue MEIS scrips manually in the concerned case and to have them accepted by the customs authorities without requiring electronic transmission. The Court accepted this course and directed the DGFT to act expeditiously by issuing the scrips manually, while the customs authorities were required to honour them and proceed further in the matter.

Conclusion: The issue was answered in favour of the petitioner. Manual issuance of the MEIS scrips was directed, and the customs authorities were bound to accept them without insisting on electronic transmission.

Ratio Decidendi: Where electronic verification and transmission of export data fail to facilitate processing of export incentive benefits, the authorities may be directed to adopt manual verification and manual issuance of the benefit instrument to ensure effective implementation of the entitlement.

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