Prospective import policy amendments cannot defeat pending advance licence applications filed and acted on under earlier export norms.

Advance licences under the Duty Exemption Scheme had to be assessed under the value addition norms in force when the applications were filed, because the later Public Notice of 25 September 1992 operated prospectively only. Exports already made in reliance on the earlier 1000% norm could not be governed by the revised 1900% norm, and later policy amendments effective from 1 April 1993 and 8 February 1994 were likewise inapplicable absent express retrospectivity. Applying the revised norm to pending applications would be arbitrary and contrary to the policy scheme, and would engage promissory estoppel or analogous principles.

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Issues: Whether advance licences under the Duty Exemption Scheme were to be issued on the basis of the value addition norms prevailing on the dates of filing of the applications, or on the basis of the revised norms introduced by the Public Notice dated 25 September 1992.

Analysis: The applications for advance licences were filed when the earlier norm of 1000% value addition was in force, and substantial exports had already been made under that regime before the revised Public Notice enhanced the norm to 1900%. The revised notice was treated as a prospective administrative amendment and not as having retrospective effect. The later amendments to the policy, including the changes effective from 1 April 1993 and 8 February 1994, were also held inapplicable to the pending applications since they were not retrospective. The Court held that applying the revised norm to applications already filed, and to exports already made in reliance on the earlier norm, would be arbitrary and contrary to the scheme of the policy, and would attract promissory estoppel or analogous principles.

Conclusion: The advance licences had to be issued on the basis of the norms prevailing on the dates of the applications, i.e. the pre-25 September 1992 norms, and not on the revised norms.

Ratio Decidendi: A prospective amendment to import policy norms cannot be applied to pending advance licence applications where the exporter acted on the earlier norms and made exports in reliance on them, unless retrospective effect is expressly provided.

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