TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2026 (8) TMI 1326
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.... 2. At the outset, learned advocates appearing for the respective parties have submitted that the issue is squarely covered by the judgment dated 05.02.2026 passed in Special Civil Application No. 17285 of 2025 and allied matters, and it is prayed that the present writ petitions may be allowed in terms of the said judgment. 3. The facts are incorporated from Special Civil Application No.16673 of 2021. The petitioners are engaged in providing various support services for maritime transport at multiple ports, including but not limited to, towing services. The services provided are covered under entry numbers 9(e) and 9(f) of the Appendix 3D, as well as under Appendix 3E of the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP). The petitioners used to derive the benefits of Service Exports from India Scheme (SEIS) under Appendix 3(D) as per the Public Notice No. 3/2015-20 dated 01.04.2015, issued by the Government of India, Ministry of Commerce and Industry. The said Public Notice has been issued under the paragraph No.2.04 of the Foreign Trade Policy 2015-20 however, by the impugned Notification No. 29/2015-20 dated 23.09.2021, the benefits, which were conferred to the petitioners are sought to be withd....
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....tification dated 23.09.2021, which is issued under the provisions of section 5 of the Foreign Act read with paragraph 1.02 of the FTP 2015-2020 and enabling paragraph No.3.13 of the FTP, is as under: "... ... ... 2. After the existing para 3.08 (a) of FTP 2015-20, the following para 3.08 (aa) is inserted: "3.08 (aa) For SEIS claims on services rendered in the FY 2019-20, the notified services and rates are listed in Appendix 3X as per Annexure to this Notification." 3. At the end of para 3.08 (c) of FTP 2015-20, the following is added: "However, there shall be no such specified services under Appendix 3E for exports made in the financial year 2019-20" 4. After the existing para 3.10 of FTP 2015-20, the following paras are inserted: "3.10A For SEIS claim for FY 2019-20, service providers of eligible services shall be entitled to Duty Credit Scrip at notified rates (as given in Appendix 3X) on net foreign exchange earned, with the total entitlement capped at Rs 5 Crore per IEC for FY 2019-20. 3.10B For SEIS claim for FY 2019-20, the deadline for filing the online application as per ANF 3B shall be 31.12.2021. Provision of....
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....tipulates that the Central Government may from time to time formulate and announce the Foreign Trade Policy and may also, in like manner, amend that policy. Thus, TMA scheme is statutory in nature. It is evident from the intention of the impugned Notification that the Scheme has been foreclosed with retrospective effect on the withdrawal of Notification dated 9th September, 2021. 6. In the instant case, by the impugned Notification dated 25.03.20222, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry has withdrawn the Notification dated 09.09.2021, thus, has given a retrospective effect of withdrawing of such Scheme. 7. We find that though the Government has power to withdraw the Scheme, however, the question which falls for deliberation before this Court is as to whether the same could have been done retrospectively or not in wake of the fact that for all these years, the Scheme was in operation and was also amended from time to time, giving rise to claims of the petitioners. At this stage, we may refer to the judgement in the case of Asian Food Industries (supra), the relevant paragraph 48 read as under: "48 The Delhi High Court, however, in our view correctly opine....
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....tion 5 of the Act does not give any specific power to the Central Government to make the rules with retrospective effect. The Central Government is authorised to make rules/schemes under the said provision as a delegatee, which means that the EXIM Policy/Scheme framed under the said provision is by way of delegated legislation. There has to be specific power to make the amendments with retrospective effect, which are lacking in the instant case. Moreover, even if there is such a power, it cannot take away vested rights which have accrued in favour of particular persons/exporters. We have already enlisted number of judgments of this Court taking such a view. A few such cases laying down the aforesaid principle are: (i) Regl. Transport Officer v. Associated Transport Madras (P) Ltd. (ii) Accountant General v. S. Doraiswamy (iii) A.A. Calton v. Director of Education (iv) Railway Board v. C.R. Rangadhamalah." 9. Thus, the Supreme Court, by examining the provisions of Section 5 of the Act, has held that Section 5 of the Act neither permits/empowers the Government to make amendments with retrospective effect, nor it allows to close th....