Promissory estoppel barred withdrawal of export incentives after exporters relied on an earlier policy and completed shipments.

Promissory estoppel was applied against the Government where exporters had entered contracts and completed shipments under an earlier export policy that promised twin benefits. A later public notice was treated as a substantive policy change for the product, not a mere alteration in computation, and could not retrospectively defeat benefits already acted upon. The Court rejected the distinction between replenishment licence and cash assistance, holding that both flowed from the same policy promise. Executive necessity was held insufficient to override the promise once relied upon, and the exporters were entitled to the promised export incentives.

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Issues: Whether the Government could deny export incentives after the exporters had acted on the earlier policy, and whether promissory estoppel barred the Government from withholding both replenishment licence and cash assistance.

Analysis: The exporters had entered into contracts and completed shipments while the earlier policy granting twin benefits was operative. The later public notice altered the basis on which benefits were to be computed, but the Court treated this as a substantive change in the policy applicable to the product, not a mere change in calculation. It further held that the doctrine of promissory estoppel applies against the Government in the exercise of its executive functions, and that executive necessity cannot be used to defeat a promise already acted upon. The challenge based on public interest was not examined further, and the argument that cash assistance stood on a different footing from replenishment licence was rejected as having no merit.

Conclusion: The Government was estopped from denying the promised export benefits, and the respondents were held entitled to both replenishment licence and cash assistance.

Ratio Decidendi: Promissory estoppel operates against the Government in respect of executive policy promises that have been acted upon, and such benefits cannot be withdrawn retrospectively by a later policy change absent a legally sustainable basis.

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