Shipping bill amendments under Customs law cannot defeat MEIS consideration where corrected bills can be regularised and transmitted for processing.

Corrected shipping bills could be regularised through the statutory amendment mechanism under section 149 of the Customs Act, and the inability of the online portal to transmit a manual post-EGM amendment did not by itself defeat consideration of export incentive benefits. The court directed transmission of the corrected bills through manual intervention at ICEGATE to enable DGFT processing and required the petitioner's MEIS claim to be decided thereafter. The operative effect was to preserve the claim for consideration on the basis of the amended shipping bills rather than reject it for the procedural limitation of online filing.

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Issues: Whether the petitioner was entitled to relief for grant of MEIS benefits despite the shipping bills having been amended manually and not through the online portal.

Analysis: The dispute arose because the petitioner had initially indicated a negative response in the online declaration and later obtained an amendment certificate correcting the shipping bills. The Court noted that the matter had already been examined in a meeting of the concerned officers, where it was recorded that in exceptional cases shipping bills may be amended under section 149 of the Customs Act and that, although manual post-EGM amendments cannot be electronically transmitted in the ordinary course, manual intervention at ICEGATE could be used to transmit the corrected bills to DGFT for processing. In light of that decision, the Court directed transmission of the corrected bills and required the petitioner's claim to be decided thereafter.

Conclusion: Relief was granted to the extent of directing transmission and reconsideration of the petitioner's claim for MEIS benefits.

Final Conclusion: The petitioner's grievance was substantially addressed through directions enabling further processing of the claim, and no further adjudication on the merits of entitlement was required.

Ratio Decidendi: Where corrected shipping bills are capable of being regularised through the statutory amendment mechanism, procedural inability of the online portal does not by itself defeat consideration of the claim for export incentive benefits.

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