TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2026 (1) TMI 1450
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....ents to take necessary actions to confer Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) credits in favour of the petitioners. 3. Brief facts of the case are that the petitioner is partnership firm engaged in the manufacturing and export of textile goods, having its manufacturing unit at Bhilwara, Rajasthan, and is thus amenable to the jurisdiction of this Hon'ble Court. The petitioners holds a valid Import Export Code (IEC) issued by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT). 3.1 Export activities are governed by the Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act, 1992 and the Customs Act, 1962. In exercise of powers under Section 5 of the said Act, the Central Government notified the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) 2015- 2020, which is implemented by the DGFT through its Regional Authorities. 3.2 Pursuant to the FTP 2015-2020, the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) was introduced under Chapter 3 of the FTP and the Handbook of Procedures (HBP), providing export incentives in the form of duty credit scrips on eligible exports. 3.3 The procedure for claiming MEIS benefits is entirely electronic and operates through the DGFT's Electronic Data Interchange (....
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....ion is wrongly filed before this Hon'ble Court. B. That the DGFT is situated in New Delhi and having a regional office shall not give any cause of action for the present Writ Petition to be preferred in the State of Rajasthan. Regional Authority (RA) is not the final authorities for sanctioning of the benefits under MEIS, and even if it is accepted, then also the said would not constitute the cause of action in the State of Rajasthan." 6. While learned counsel for the petitioner would strenuously argue that filing of the application seeking benefit of the Merchandise Exports for India Scheme before the Custom Officer of Gujarat is merely a ministerial Act. The Custom Officer lacks any authority to either add anything or subtract anything or allow any changes once the application is filed online. He submits that, inadvertently instead of opting for 'Y' in the appropriate column, the default entry of 'N' could not be changed while filling up the online options. Subsequently, the said mistake came to the knowledge of the petitioner company and immediately a representation was filed before the Customs Officer which is contained in Annexure-6. However he submits that the....
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.... persuade ourselves with the arguments of learned counsel for the respondents that since the application was to be forwarded by the Custom Officer to the Regional Authority, the jurisdiction is exclusively vested at Gujarat. Clearly in order to seek the benefit of the scheme, the Competent Authority being the Regional Authority, Jaipur part cause of action, if not all, arises in the State of Rajasthan. 11. Aside above, the facts narrated in the petition in paragraph 8 & 9 also make out a case in favour of the petitioner to invoke the jurisdiction of this Court. Paragraph 8 & 9 of the writ petition reads as under: "8. That in pursuance of the aforesaid framework, the exporters are required to submit the shipping bills to the Customs authorities and while making this submission electronically, they need to inform the authorities that the bills should be transferred to the DGFT authorities (by) selecting between a "Yes"/ "No" option, to enable the allotment of Duty Credit scrips (by the DGFT department). Earlier, when this process was done through manual filings, corrections could be made (on the exporters end itself, through submission of manual application), in view of t....
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....s satisfied, cannot be denied due to technical errors or any ministerial default and/or any lacunae caused either by electronic system or human inadvertence. He would urge that the said opinion is based on the very substantive provision contained in Section 145 of the Customs Act which also envisages such like errors caused by the human interface and thus permits subsequent amendments/corrections in the application once filed/uploaded with the Custom Officers. 16. On being confronted with the ratio rendered in the judgments ibid, learned counsel for the respondents would submit that as per the principle enunciated therein, there is no dispute that they hold the field even as on today. None of these judgments have been challenged in the Supreme Court, he would respond on a court query. 17. For ready reference one of the judgments rendered by High Court in Bombardier Transportation India Pvt. Ltd. Vs Directorate General of Foreign Trade; [2021 SCC OnLine Guj 3267] is quoted herein below: "19. It is further submitted that the issue in the present writ-application is no longer res integra. Various High Courts including this Hon'ble High Court have already permitted t....
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....onth from the date of receipt of a copy of the judgment, after hearing the writ petitioners. In the meanwhile, the Customs Authorities were directed to issue necessary 'No Objection Certificate in favour of the writ petitioners for processing the claim afresh. 3. Learned counsel for the appellants contended that, since the writ petitioners have not checked the 'Yes' Box in the relevant column, indicating their intention with respect to claiming of the benefit under MEIS, necessary verification of the export consignment was not done at the relevant time; and that verification of the consignment is not possible as of now. We are not persuaded to accept the said contention. Even if there exists no claim for the benefit under the MEIS, naturally there will be physical verification with respect to the goods consigned by the exporter. Therefore the details of the shipping as well as the necessary verification preceding the export were already done at that time would clearly indicate the identity of the goods exported. If the identity of the goods exported would reveal that the goods exported are those goods with respect to which the benefit under MEIS is all....