Export controls must specify goods by description; a blanket destination-based prohibition was unsustainable.

A restriction on export under section 3 of the Imports and Exports (Control) Act, 1947 must identify the goods by specified description; a bare reference to destination is not enough. The statute permits prohibition, restriction or control of imports and exports, but the regulatory scheme and related forms distinguish between the place of destination and the description of goods. A notification that barred export of all goods to a named destination without describing the goods was therefore unsustainable. The challenge to the show-cause notice succeeded, while the question whether the Chief Controller had authority to issue or authenticate the notification was not finally decided.

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Issues: Whether a notification issued under section 3 of the Imports and Exports (Control) Act, 1947 could validly prohibit export of all goods to a particular destination without specifying the description of the goods.

Analysis: Section 3 empowers the Central Government to prohibit, restrict or control import or export in all cases or in specified classes of cases, but the statutory text still requires the goods to be identified by specified description. A destination such as Rhodesia is not, by itself, a description of the goods. The scheme of the import and export control laws, the prescribed forms and orders under the same regulatory framework, and the parallel language in later control provisions all support a distinction between the destination of goods and the description of goods. As the impugned notification prohibited export of all goods without specifying their description, it could not be sustained. The question of authority of the Chief Controller to issue or authenticate the notification was not finally decided.

Conclusion: The prohibition was invalid, and the challenge to the show-cause notice succeeded.

Final Conclusion: The appeal failed because the impugned export prohibition could not stand in the absence of a specified description of the goods.

Ratio Decidendi: A restriction on import or export under section 3 of the Imports and Exports (Control) Act, 1947 must specify the goods by description, and a mere reference to their destination is insufficient to sustain a blanket prohibition.

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