SAD refund limitation cannot be imported into the notification where no express statutory time bar applies

Refund of Special Additional Duty under Notification No. 102/2007-Customs could not be rejected as time-barred where the notification did not expressly incorporate the limitation under Section 27 of the Customs Act, 1962. The tribunal treated the attempt to import a one-year period through amendment or subordinate legislation as impermissible and applied the principle that limitation cannot begin before the refund right crystallises. On that basis, the limitation objection was rejected, the refund claim was held maintainable, and refund of SAD with consequential interest was directed.

---

---

Issues: Whether refund of Special Additional Duty under Notification No. 102/2007-Customs was barred by limitation and whether the claimant was entitled to refund with interest.

Analysis: The refund claim arose under Notification No. 102/2007-Customs, and the controversy was whether a one-year limitation could be imported into the notification through the subsequent amendment. The order follows the settled view that, in the absence of an express incorporation of the limitation provision of Section 27 of the Customs Act, 1962, the refund claim under the notification could not be rejected as time-barred. It further proceeds on the principle that limitation cannot commence before the right to refund crystallises, and that a limitation period cannot be introduced for the first time through subordinate legislation.

Conclusion: The limitation objection was rejected and the refund claim was held to be maintainable. The appellant was entitled to refund of SAD with interest.

Final Conclusion: The impugned rejection was set aside and refund relief was directed to follow with consequential interest benefits.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a refund notification does not expressly adopt the limitation of Section 27 of the Customs Act, 1962, a time bar cannot be read into it by amendment or subordinate legislation, and limitation for refund cannot run before the refund right accrues.

---