MEIS benefit claims cannot be defeated by an inadvertent shipping bill error where export entitlement and intent are otherwise clear.

Export incentive claims under MEIS should not fail solely because a shipping bill incorrectly marked "NO" instead of "YES" in the reward column where the exporter had made eligible exports and the intention to claim the benefit was otherwise clear. The Gujarat HC treated the declaration mistake as a procedural lapse on the facts presented and accepted that a technical or system-related error could not defeat a substantive entitlement. The impugned rejection of the MEIS claims was therefore unsustainable, and manual processing could be directed to implement the scheme benefit.

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Issues: Whether exporters who inadvertently ticked "NO" instead of "YES" in the MEIS reward column of shipping bills could be denied MEIS benefits, and whether the authorities were bound to accept manual applications and grant the scrips.

Analysis: The Court noted that the petitioners had exported eligible goods and that the only defect was an inadvertent failure to mark the declaration of intent correctly in the shipping bills. Relying on earlier decisions, the Court treated the marking requirement as procedural in the facts of the case and held that a technical or electronic-system-related lapse could not defeat a substantive entitlement where the export and the intention to claim the reward were otherwise established. The Court therefore accepted that the impugned rejections were unsustainable and that manual processing could be directed in order to give effect to the scheme benefits.

Conclusion: The issue was decided in favour of the petitioners. The denial of MEIS benefits on the ground of inadvertent marking of "NO" was set aside and the respondents were directed to accept the manual applications and grant MEIS scrips.

Final Conclusion: The writ petition succeeded, and the impugned orders rejecting the MEIS claims were quashed with a direction to extend the export incentive benefits within the stipulated time.

Ratio Decidendi: A substantive export incentive cannot be denied merely because of an inadvertent procedural error in the shipping bill where the exporter's entitlement and intention to claim the benefit are otherwise established.

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