RoDTEP eligibility for permitted sugar exports upheld despite restricted export classification under the revised policy.

Exports of white refined sugar made under specific permission within the revised export policy were treated as eligible for RoDTEP, because the restriction on sugar exports was not absolute and operated through a permission and quota mechanism. The court read the export policy and implementing notifications together and held that the ineligibility clause was meant for goods that are truly prohibited or otherwise ineligible, not for exports lawfully permitted under the prescribed regime. It also noted that the same controversy had already been resolved by the Gujarat High Court, with the related special leave petitions having been dismissed. Denial of the rebate was therefore unjustified.

---

---

Issues: Whether exporters of white refined sugar, whose exports were made with specific permission under the revised export policy, were entitled to RoDTEP benefit despite the notification classifying sugar as a restricted export.

Analysis: The entitlement to RoDTEP depended on the effect of the export policy and the implementing notifications governing sugar exports. Although the export of sugar was revised from free to restricted, the restriction was not absolute and exports were permitted on specific permission granted by the Directorate of Sugar. The scheme's ineligibility clause was aimed at goods that were truly restricted or prohibited, but the notifications read together showed that permitted exports of sugar under the prescribed quota and permission mechanism were not of that character. The Court also noted that identical controversy had already been decided by the High Court of Gujarat and that those orders had attained finality after dismissal of the Special Leave Petitions.

Conclusion: The petitioners were entitled to RoDTEP benefit, and denial of that benefit was not justified.

Final Conclusion: The petitions succeeded, the respondents were directed to extend RoDTEP rebate where not granted, refund amounts recovered where benefit had been withdrawn, and no coercive recovery was to be undertaken in granted cases.

Ratio Decidendi: Where an export policy makes a commodity restricted only subject to specific permission and the exporter has complied with that permission regime, the export cannot be treated as a prohibited or ineligible export for denial of the export-linked rebate scheme.

---