Shipping bill amendment under Section 149 cannot be curtailed by circular time limits where DFIA records show only an inadvertent code error.

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....Section 149 of the Customs Act governs amendment of shipping bills, and where the statute does not prescribe a limitation period, a departmental circular cannot impose a three-month bar to curtail that right. The Tribunal was therefore justified in rejecting the delay objection and permitting amendment. The Court also held that the mistaken entry of export scheme code was a clerical error, since DFIA applications, file numbers and shipping bills already reflected DFIA exports. On that record, the request was only to correct an inadvertent code error, not to effect a barred conversion of scheme, and the first proviso to Section 149 did not apply. The Tribunal's order was upheld.....